Cryptography for Dummies | 
 enlarge | Author: Chey Cobb
Publisher: For Dummies
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $10.17
You Save: $14.82 (59%)
New (28) Used (11) Collectible (1) from $10.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 196814
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0764541889
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.8
EAN: 9780764541889
ASIN: 0764541889
Publication Date: January 30, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, never opened, in stock in our warehouse, and ships right now.
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Product Description
- Cryptography is the most effective way to achieve data security and is essential to e-commerce activities such as online shopping, stock trading, and banking
- This invaluable introduction to the basics of encryption covers everything from the terminology used in the field to specific technologies to the pros and cons of different implementations
- Discusses specific technologies that incorporate cryptography in their design, such as authentication methods, wireless encryption, e-commerce, and smart cards
- Based entirely on real-world issues and situations, the material provides instructions for already available technologies that readers can put to work immediately
- Expert author Chey Cobb is retired from the NRO, where she held a Top Secret security clearance, instructed employees of the CIA and NSA on computer security and helped develop the computer security policies used by all U.S. intelligence agencies
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 A good "for dummies" book. January 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A good introduction to how cryptography works. Very simple, yet accurate. It covers basically all the fundamentals of how cryptography works, how it's used, and how it *should* be used. Math is kept extremely minimal.
 Great intro to Crypto December 3, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book will open the eyes of anyone who wants to learn about the subject. And the Author does a great job of making it a fun read too. The reason i bought this book, it to understand whats up with digital certificates. My eyes were opened when i found out that many certificates are not cross compatible with all apps... its hundreds of facts like this, that will help you to finally figure it out everything you need to know to make it happen for you. Especially with PGP (its free and it rocks)
 Disappointing Read April 22, 2006
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book lacks credibility. It gives a weak high level outline for crypto and has some very embarrassing inaccuracies when detail is attempted to be covered. It's also shockingly dated in places and very poorly written with disorganized statements. Save your money and visit some websites that would give you better general and specialized information and not cost you a bean. This book is not value for money.
Disappointing December 4, 2005
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
Not a good book in many ways. Lots of slapdash comment, quite a few innacuracies and badly edited. Seems like it was rushed out to fill a gap in the market. I've worked in banks for years, and followed cyrypto development and written crypto policy, we bought this book to introduce the subject to some of our new guys, and we quickly fell out of favor with the content.
Save your dollars and buy something a little bit more credible!
Pretty Good Intro to Cryptography September 30, 2005
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
I've stumbled across cryptography for about the past year, so recently I decided to go ahead and learn some basics (as I think the subject and InfoSec is really interesting). Most cryptography books out there are for the advanced and are mathematically rigorous. While I gladly welcome math, I needed an overview to bring me up to speed, prepping me for more intermediate (and eventually advanced) texts later.
I've never read a Dummies book dealing with computer technology before, because although they're written for absolute novices, the low-level writing style irritates me, usually takes too long to get to the "interesting stuff", and the "yippity-skippity!" attitude will eventually make me go seek a more advanced text. Basically, Dummies books "hold your hand", and if this is what you need, they're great! But if not, they can be rather slow for you (as for me).
However, Cryptography for Dummies is pretty good, aside from a few misses. By this being a Dummies book, the impression of this text being for complete neophytes is false - if you don't have any experience with basic computer science topics (e.g. binary, binary-to-decimal conversions, bits/bytes/words, etc.), the first couple chapters may be a little hard to understand, as the author assumes you at least know that stuff.
Aside from that, the author does a good job explaining the basic topics one needs to understand cryptography and its inner-workings. However, the author's writing style leaves much to be desired at times. At points, I found myself scratching my head, re-reading passages several times, trying to figure out what the author meant. At times when he should explain the nuances of something, he doesn't, leaving you to go, "HUH?" (A good example of this are the early parts where he talks about keys but doesn't explain what a key is or how they interact with other parts of a cryptographic system.)
There are other sections where the author leaves entire descriptions of things out, where you'll have to figure it out for yourself. Perhaps this is purposeful, so he won't get too far into the topic, as this book is basically an overview. Something else I noticed too is the vast amount of errors the book has! I'm not sure if Dummies has an 'Errata' section on its site.
While this book is by no means a complete text (probably not even a 1/3-complete text), overall, it's good for those who want an overview of the subject, and plan on venturing further, as I do.
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