Rating: 
Summary: Shucks! No in depth discussion of elliptic curve crypto!!!
Review: A disappointing book for those who expected a discussion of elliptic curve cryptography. I bought this book "blind" (from Amazon without first perusing it in a library) and so did not know what to expect. The authors spend one paragraph on elliptic curves and state that an in-depth discussion of such is beyond the scope of the book. The book is however a very good one for discussing most of the other approaches to cryptography. A serious student/practioner of cryptography should have this on his/her shelf, but supplemented by some of the other books on elliptic curve cryptography. The authors could no doubt write a second edition of this book which includes a discussion of elliptic curve cryptography. The handbook would then become a "Bible" of cryptographic specialists. -From a worshipper of elliptic curves.
Rating: 
Summary: Very depthful yet readable
Review: A thorough coverage of topics in cryptography is only one of many features which make this book invaluable to computer scientists. While not intended to be a textbook, this handbook includes enough background information to be of use to those with minimal theoretical computer science knowledge. The chapter organization is logical and very modular so that after reading the introductory chapters, one can skip ahead to the chapters of interest with little difficulty.
The second chapter provides a concise review of probability theory, information theory, complexity theory, and number theory. This chapter would be helpful to anyone in computer science who already has some discrete math background. For readers with no discrete math background I would recommend first reading "Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications" by Kenneth Rosen, the editor of the series this book belongs to.
The coverage of number-theoretic problems in chapter 3 is very easy to follow and provides a handy reference to the average case performance of the best known algorithms for each.
The next few chapters are very math-intensive and outline the most common encryption algorithms and standards with examples. The chapter on block ciphers includes a section on classical ciphers and cryptanalysis which, as a sidenote, might be of interest to students of linguistics.
The later chapters present protocols for authentication, digital signing, and key management which build on the algorithms of the previous chapters, but can be understood independently.
One of the final chapters presents methods of effecient computation which again would be useful to anyone in computer science, not just those who are interested in cryptography.
Overall, the development of the topics in the book is complete (although by no means rigorous) and concise, including examples only where necessary. I highly recommend this book to students who want to learn more about cryptography, anyone whose job requires some knowledge of standards for authentication, digital signing, etc., such as internet security, and any computer scientist who has an academic interest in algorithms and their applications.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent reference for anyone in computer science
Review: A thorough coverage of topics in cryptography is only one of many features which make this book invaluable to computer scientists. While not intended to be a textbook, this handbook includes enough background information to be of use to those with minimal theoretical computer science knowledge. The chapter organization is logical and very modular so that after reading the introductory chapters, one can skip ahead to the chapters of interest with little difficulty.
The second chapter provides a concise review of probability theory, information theory, complexity theory, and number theory. This chapter would be helpful to anyone in computer science who already has some discrete math background. For readers with no discrete math background I would recommend first reading "Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications" by Kenneth Rosen, the editor of the series this book belongs to.
The coverage of number-theoretic problems in chapter 3 is very easy to follow and provides a handy reference to the average case performance of the best known algorithms for each.
The next few chapters are very math-intensive and outline the most common encryption algorithms and standards with examples. The chapter on block ciphers includes a section on classical ciphers and cryptanalysis which, as a sidenote, might be of interest to students of linguistics.
The later chapters present protocols for authentication, digital signing, and key management which build on the algorithms of the previous chapters, but can be understood independently.
One of the final chapters presents methods of effecient computation which again would be useful to anyone in computer science, not just those who are interested in cryptography.
Overall, the development of the topics in the book is complete (although by no means rigorous) and concise, including examples only where necessary. I highly recommend this book to students who want to learn more about cryptography, anyone whose job requires some knowledge of standards for authentication, digital signing, etc., such as internet security, and any computer scientist who has an academic interest in algorithms and their applications.
Rating:
Summary: #1 book on cryptography
Review: I have read a few book on cryptography and this is by far the best book I have read. If you have never taken a course on discrete math this book does a great job at explaining some of the topics. If you think you may need a book to help with the discrete math I would also recomend "Concrete Mathematics : A Foundation for Computer Science" by Ronald Graham and others.
"Handbook of Applied Cryptography" takes you from basic number function to public key encryptions, I highly recomend it!
Rating:
Summary: Very depthful yet readable
Review: I read 4 other books before picking this one. It is the most detailed and readable book. Covers all aspect of the Cryptography. Worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent text book on cryptography and number theory.
Review: If you want more information than you can possibly absorb about number theory this is the book to get. Everything from the basics of understanding number theory to testing for prime numbers, it's all here. You need a university degree to appreciate everything that's in this book, but definitely worth the money as a reference item.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference indeed
Review: If you're going to work in the area of Cryptography, you can't afford
to neglect this book. We used this in a course, and even though it's a handbook, it doubles up
pretty well as a textbook, since it has all the underlying mathematical
theory, presented in a clear and concise manner. For sheer breadth and depth of coverage, this book is unmatched in the
field. It may not have enough on some topics to satisfy everyone, but
then i suspect most such topics were not so prominent in 1996, which
is when the book was written. Starting with number theory, it goes on cover pseudorandom bits and
sequences, stream and block ciphers, hash functions, and digital signatures,
establishment protocols, implementation, patents and standards - you name
it, you got it. On the one hand, there's enough theory to make you wonder whether it
should be called 'applied', but then it indeed qualifies as implementations
are discussed as well. And of course, there's an exhaustive bibliography, with more pointers to
the literature than one could possibly follow up. One word of caution, though : it requires hard work. If you want a more
'relaxed' coverage of comparable breadth (but not depth), you can do
worse than look up Bruce Schneier's 'Applied Crypography', which is a
delightful read, but nowhere as rigorous (read academic) as this one. All in all, this is an indispensable reference for those in the field -
rigorous and exhaustive, yet eminently readable. If you still haven't made your mind up, here's one final piece of advice :
visit the authors'(rather the book's) website, where you'll get the
implementations of all the algorithms in the book, and a (presumably)
pleasant surprise :-)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference indeed
Review: If you're going to work in the area of Cryptography, you can't afford
to neglect this book. We used this in a course, and even though it's a handbook, it doubles up
pretty well as a textbook, since it has all the underlying mathematical
theory, presented in a clear and concise manner. For sheer breadth and depth of coverage, this book is unmatched in the
field. It may not have enough on some topics to satisfy everyone, but
then i suspect most such topics were not so prominent in 1996, which
is when the book was written. Starting with number theory, it goes on cover pseudorandom bits and
sequences, stream and block ciphers, hash functions, and digital signatures,
establishment protocols, implementation, patents and standards - you name
it, you got it. On the one hand, there's enough theory to make you wonder whether it
should be called 'applied', but then it indeed qualifies as implementations
are discussed as well. And of course, there's an exhaustive bibliography, with more pointers to
the literature than one could possibly follow up. One word of caution, though : it requires hard work. If you want a more
'relaxed' coverage of comparable breadth (but not depth), you can do
worse than look up Bruce Schneier's 'Applied Crypography', which is a
delightful read, but nowhere as rigorous (read academic) as this one. All in all, this is an indispensable reference for those in the field -
rigorous and exhaustive, yet eminently readable. If you still haven't made your mind up, here's one final piece of advice :
visit the authors'(rather the book's) website, where you'll get the
implementations of all the algorithms in the book, and a (presumably)
pleasant surprise :-)
Rating:
Summary: Konusunda yazýlmýþ derli toplu tek kitap (in Turkish)
Review: Kitap biraz daha açýklamalý ve örnekler verilerek zenginleþtirilebilir. Konularýn akýþ sýrasý alýþýlmýþýn dýþýnda.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough and complete
Review: Menezes et. al. provide a thorough review of the field of cryptography. It's the first book I grab when I'm looking for something. Much more in depth than Bruce Scheier's "Applied Cryptography"
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