Rating: 
Summary: From beginner to advanced
Review: Pretty good source of information about cryptography. The way it is written guides you through this (sometimes - almost alltimes) difficult terrain.Bruce is trying to bring this knowledge to the masses, and does a good job. It is up to you to continue to more specialized text books or stay at this level.
Rating: 
Summary: Good information to get you started; comes with C source too
Review: This is one of the few cryptograhpy book that can be fun to read. It is also a catalogue containing quite a number of algorithms along with readable explanations that make it easy to understand. However, if the reader doesn't understand what an XOR operation is, this book can be quite hard to finish. No in depth maths here. I bought this book in 99 and found it useful, because it helped me gain insight, into the practical application of crytograhpy in my programming endevours. Glancing through the C source code at the end of the book started me thinking on the code implementation in my efforts. A stimulating read. Fours stars because I was hoping for more goodies. Beware!!! Some people around you might think that this book is written in a language resembling english, all about Alice, Bob, Carol, Mallory and company.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the money?
Review: Did anybody mention that you have to pay extra if you want to get the source code? There is no CD included. The author includes one of those "send check or money order to..." advertisements at the end of the book. ...
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive
Review: This is a comprehensive guide to both the protocols and the algorithms. The author supplies a lengthy list for furhter reading as well. The source code is shipped to North American readers at extra cost. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Explains everything
Review: This book has really shed a lot of light on cryptography for me. I honestly can't put it down--I wish I had paid more attention in my statistics classes so I could be able to apply some of the stuff the author talks about better. I am about half way through the book, and I haven't gotten to the point where it's more of a chore than a pleasure to read it (something I can't about my other technical books). Get it!
Rating:
Summary: The all-time best crypto reference ever
Review: Sometimes you must choose either clarity (for the newbies) or in-depth obscure explanations (for the experts). Bruce Schneier has done the great job of joining the two aspects together. He explains things clearly and even playfully. He enjoys teaching, he enjoys cryptography and you can tell it from his style. But he does not stop there: he explains things in depth whenever possible and useful, and tries to explain how a cryptosystem is evaluated, how to choose between algorithms, and how to correctly implement cryptography in your works. This book is an absolute must have for everyone interested in cryptography, and can substitute very well even an academic course on the matter.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but a little bit out-of-date
Review: This book is a very strong introduction to computer-based cryptography, especially geared towards programmers who aren't solely interested in the mathematical theory behind cryptography, and refers the reader to a number of other good books on topics that it doesn't cover. My only complaint is that some of the material in it is a bit dated (notably the entire section on the Clipper chip). If a fourth edition came out today, I think it would be worthwile to buy.
However, for someone looking to learn about cryptology in general, this is not the book to buy. This focuses only on the needs of engineers who want/need to learn about cryptology, without forcing them to learn all of the theory.
Rating:
Summary: a great book for Avid Crypto fans
Review: This is not a simplified overview, be warned. Simon Singhs The Code Book is for armchair readers. This is a comprehensive and detailed examination of how real world cryptography is done. It's an excellent book for programmers seeking to implement security into their programs. It is also an eye-opening look at how even the cleverest security algorithms can be compromised. The emphasis is on illuminating just how difficult it can be to protect communications. The devil is in the details and Schneier gives you the details but in an understandable way.
Rating:
Summary: Lives Up To It's Name
Review: I will have to agree with some of the other reviewers that this book finesses a bit on number theory and some of the other mathematical fundamentals of cryptography. I am not dissapointed by this, however. After all the title of the book is "Applied Cryptography." Schneier gives the reader a lot for his/her money. The books is well written and an easy (considering the subject matter) and interesting read as well. "Applied Cryptography" covers a lot of territory - you get the basics of cryptographic theory, detailed treatment of many of the most commonly implemented cryptographic algorithms and protocols (including their potential weaknesses), and lots of source code. If you want to know the sordid details about number theory or pseudo random numbers, there are plenty of books in print that go into great (and often laborious) detail on these subjects. The title says it all -- this is an excellent book on applied cryptography!
Rating:
Summary: Very easy to understand, and complete
Review: When I read this just after it came out, it was arguably the best, most comprehensive book on the subject. It may still be, but I haven't surveyed the field in the last year. But either way, this book is very easy to read, and makes some fairly complicated stuff easy to understand. This is a subject area that makes it real easy to be dry, boring, and all of that, but this book is none of those things. Applied Cryptography is fun to read, and makes the subject interesting. About 1/2 of the book is stuff anyone interested in the subject, or anyone that needs to implement some form of encryption or digital signatures will find very useful. The other half is the underlying algorithms and mathematics behind it, which to be honest I didn't read and didn't need to know to do my job. But this is a great book, and has both sides of the story.
| 
