Cryptologia
Volume 21 Number 2 (April 1997)
Menezes, Alfred J., Paul C. van Oorschot, and Scott A. Vanstone
In the past 20 years, cryptography - especially public-key cryptography - has
not only become the subject of a massive amount of research, it has also
provided the foundation for information security in many applications.
Standards are emerging to meet the demands for cryptographic protection in
most areas of data communications and public-key cryptographic techniques are
now commonly used in industry, particularly financial services and the public
sector, and by individuals for their personal privacy such as e-mail.
The Handbook is an outstanding encyclopedia of "existing cryptographic
knowledge of industrial interest in one consistent, self-contained volume."
While a handy reference for professional in the field, this definitive reference
will also be valuable to university computer scientists and mathematicians,
"and provides a comprehensive source from which to learn cryptography, serving
both students and instructors."
Virtually all important topics in modern cryptography are covered in the book's
15 chapters: Overview of Cryptography, Mathematical Background, Number-Theoretic
Reference Problems, Public-Key Parameters, Pseudorandom Bits and Sequences,
Stream Ciphers, Block Ciphers, Public-Key Encryption, Hash Functions and Data
Integrity, Identification and Entity Authentication, Ditigal Signatures,
Key Establishment Protocols, Key Management Techniques, Efficient
Implementation, and Patents and Standards.
Excellent organization of material and numbering of items provide easy access
to information which includes: more than 200 algorithms and protocols; more
than 200 tables and figures; more than 1,000 numbered definitions, facts,
examples, notes and remarks; more than 1,250 references with brief remarks on
each paper, and a 25-page index. Over 90 experts in cryptography reviewed
chapters in their specialties and extensive notes at the end of each chapter
survey relevant available literature. And appendices provide a novel
bibliography of all papers published in Asiacrypt/Auscrypt, Crypto, Eurocrypt,
and Fast Software Encryption conferences and the Journal of Cryptology.
In his Foreword, Professor Ronald L. Rivest call this Handbook "a major
contribution to the field of cryptography ... a rigorous encyclopedia of known
techniques that are both (believed to be) secure and practically useful ...
[It is] both a self-contained tutorial and an indispensable desk reference."
CRC Press, Inc., 2000 Corporate Blvd. NW, Boca Raton FL 33431 USA.
1997. 780pp. $79.95.
Return to Reviews