No label defined (Q4793166)

The author has brought together the most relevant topics about Public-Key Cryptography (PKC) and Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI). In the author's words ``this book is intended for a second course in cryptography at the undergraduate level''. However the book incorporates a wealth of additional materials that make the book interesting for a much wider public spectrum. In spite of the title, the RSA cryptosystem does not monopolize the work: the description takes only four pages of Chapter 3 (Public-Key Cryptography, where the cryptosystems based on the so-called discrete logarithm problem are also studied) while Chapter 6 analyzes its security. Chapters 4 and 5 (Probabilistic Primality Tests and Factoring respectively) are also related to RSA. The rest of the book examines the usual PKI protocols (authentication, digital signatures, certification, integrity, etc.), and other security applications (electronic cash, secret broadcasting, smart cards, biometrics, etc.). The main topic not included is the use of elliptic curves in public-key cryptography (the book only mentions it in a footnote). The development of the topics treated is elementary yet rigorous, and the book, as others of the author, is clear and well written. To make the book as self-contained as possible it includes three appendices (with background information about the English letter frequency, complexity theory and some algebraic and arithmetic elementary results). At the end of each section exercises are included (350 in all), and as usual in the books of the author solutions of the odd-numbered exercises are provided at the end of the book. The text is also supplemented with 100 footnotes, of which about 40 trace the biographical profile of highlighted people in cryptography.