Cryptography is perhaps the most important thing you use every day – from e-commerce, to messaging apps, to retrieving your email, to withdrawing cash from an ATM to TV via satellite – unknowingly. It’s a complex and important area that’s usually not fun or accessible.

Jean-Philippe Aumasson Serious Cryptography is a classic (and serious) introduction to the field. Organized into alphabetical dictionary definitions with occasional additional detail, its Cryptographic Dictionary: 500 Tasty Information for the Curious Cryptographer is a slightly less serious, but surprisingly comprehensive collection of nuggets of crypto information that will make you smile and sometimes scratch your head.

Sometimes the writing is concise: Base64 is simply labeled “no encryption”, while the fundamental concept of Proof of Work cryptocurrency is (accurately) defined as “the contribution of cryptography to environmental problems”. Sometimes it’s both concise and useful: in addition to calling blockchain “both a blessing and a curse”, the book offers an unbiased discussion of the downsides and upsides of so much interest in the technology. .

Not all of the jokes are funny (or appropriate), with some being so cryptic that they’ll elude anyone who isn’t an expert (although it’s worth investigating why the author refers to Time AI as “the festival Fyre of Cryptography”). The author can’t resist the odd workhorse that doesn’t contribute much, and you’ll need some mathematical knowledge and a passing knowledge of the basics of cryptography to get the most out of the more technical definitions.

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But there are also plenty of really helpful entries with helpful explanations, from the basics of Diffie-Hellman encryption to Bruce Schneier’s famous warning signs for spotting cryptosystems that are more hype than actual security. Cryptographic dictionary covers standards, conferences, key websites, historical references and anecdotes – like the infamous banking representative asking for the fundamentals of TLS 1.3 to be changed when the standard was almost decided – making it as much a compendium than a dictionary.

Cryptographic Dictionary won’t teach you how to do crypto or how to judge if something is cryptographically correct. But if you want to research a specific cryptography cipher, technique, or protocol, learn what rainbow tables are and how they help crack passwords, or read the difference between quantum and post-cryptography. quantum (the former being both post-quantum but also not part of the latter), then this book is an ideal starting point. It will also likely pique your interest in another concept when you turn to the corresponding page.

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