Introduction to Cryptography with Open-Source Software

Preface

The growth of c ryptography as both an academic discipline and a teaching

subject has exploded over the last few decades. Once the privilege of the

very few—and those few working in secr e t—cryptography is now taught in

some form at universities the world over, and new books are being published

with amazing r apidity. Before 1990, only 58 books containing the word “cryp-

tography” in their titles had ever been published, acc ording to the catalo gue

of the Library of Congr e ss. Since then, 329 cryptography books have been

published, and in the decade 2001–2010 an avera ge of a bout 21 books were

published each year.

1

Cryptography books tend ...