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Keith Martin
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Cryptography: The Key to Digital Security, How It Works, and Why It Matters Kindle Edition

by Keith Martin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 77 ratings
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A “must-read” (Vincent Rijmen) nuts-and-bolts explanation of cryptography from a leading expert in information security.


Despite its reputation as a language only of spies and hackers, cryptography plays a critical role in our everyday lives. Though often invisible, it underpins the security of our mobile phone calls, credit card payments, web searches, internet messaging, and cryptocurrencies—in short, everything we do online. Increasingly, it also runs in the background of our smart refrigerators, thermostats, electronic car keys, and even the cars themselves. As our daily devices get smarter, cyberspace—home to all the networks that connect them—grows.


Broadly defined as a set of tools for establishing security in this expanding cyberspace, cryptography enables us to protect and share our information. Understanding the basics of cryptography is the key to recognizing the significance of the security technologies we encounter every day, which will then help us respond to them.


What are the implications of connecting to an unprotected Wi-Fi network? Is it really so important to have different passwords for different accounts? Is it safe to submit sensitive personal information to a given app, or to convert money to bitcoin? In clear, concise writing, information security expert Keith Martin answers all these questions and more, revealing the many crucial ways we all depend on cryptographic technology. He demystifies its controversial applications and the nuances behind alarming headlines about data breaches at banks, credit bureaus, and online retailers. We learn, for example, how encryption can hamper criminal investigations and obstruct national security efforts, and how increasingly frequent ransomware attacks put personal information at risk. Yet we also learn why responding to these threats by restricting the use of cryptography can itself be problematic.


Essential reading for anyone with a password, Cryptography offers a profound perspective on personal security, online and off.

Previous page
  1. ISBN-13
    978-0393867459
  2. Sticky notes
    Not Enabled
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    May 19, 2020
  5. Language
    English
  6. File size
    1868 KB
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In his typical low-key style, Keith Martin explains how digital security is necessarily based on cryptosystems, secret keys, and public keys. A must-read for anyone who wants to participate competently in discussions on the role of cryptography in our society"
― Vincent Rijmen, co-designer of the Advanced Encryption Standard

"Encryption is both one of the most fiercely contested and one of the least understood tech-policy issues of our time. Keith Martin has written an indispensable guide to the ongoing crypto wars―balanced, gripping, and in plain English."
― Thomas Rid, professor of strategic studies, Johns Hopkins University, and author of Active Measures

"Keith Martin has a knack for explaining one of today’s toughest inter-disciplinary problems in an accessible and accurate way. There’s no math required, just a willingness to engage your brain. You will finish this book both entertained and better informed."
― Kenny Paterson, professor of computer science, ETH Zürich

About the Author

Keith Martin is a professor of information security at Royal Holloway, University of London, and has worked in cryptographic research for thirty years. He lives in Surrey, United Kingdom.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07ZTT7VFB
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (May 19, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 19, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1868 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 316 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 77 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
77 global ratings
Good, basic explanation
5 Stars
Good, basic explanation
Cryptography can be a complicated subject to approach. I've been amazed at how many people, even in the IT profession, who don't fully understand what's happening in the background (just because someone can configure encryption, doesn't mean they get what's actually going on). This book boils down the nuts and bolts of cryptography into plain speak. It provides a background and basic understanding. Everything is clearly written, and you don't have to be a mathematician to get it.While you will not be a cryptographer after reading this book, it's not marketed as providing such knowledge. The book is a relatively quick read and doesn't go in-depth into any one particular type of encryption. As the author indicates, hopefully a greater awareness will give people more appreciation for securing their data infrastructure, which is needed now more than ever.
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Top reviews from the United States

Gordon Holmes
5.0 out of 5 stars Great explanation for the Non-IT professional
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2021
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Keith Martin does an excellent job explaining the many different aspects of cryptography and supports his explanations with analogies. I highly recommend this book for the non-IT professional.
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GearFreak
5.0 out of 5 stars Good foundations book
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2023
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
This is a good book to cover a lot of the basics and foundations of crypotography. It's a fast evolving field so you will want to use this as a "starting point" and do some more research on current trends and innovations in specific topics you are interested in.
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W. D. Barnum
4.0 out of 5 stars Everything you ever wanted to know about Cryptography - and more
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2021
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
The author is an expert in Cryptography. Many experts "talk down" to non-experts when discussing their specific areas of expertise. I found this to be the case in the early chapters of this book, and as I read, I was thinking that the book would get no more than a three star rating. However, as the book progresses, the author seems to drop that mannerism and starts "talking" to the reader, more or less, as a peer. So, don't get ticked off by the early attitude, just plow forward and it will get better.

The author gives a bit of the history of cryptography, and shows how it has developed. He goes over the various types of codes, and their keys. (He really does need a bit more explanation on how the encryption/decryption is performed when using asymmetric encryption. He provides plenty of information on the generation of the keys for the public key and the private keys, but little on the actual process explaining why one needs the two primes that create the public key to be able to decrypt a message sent using the public key and the sender’s private key.)

The author goes into significant detail as to how encryption is used in our everyday use of the internet, cellular phones, bank cards, etc. He describes not only the encryption methods, but also the "systems" in which they are used - since "plain text" is available at both ends of a transmission - the entire data system must be analyzed to determine if it is secure or not.

Although not original to the author, he knows great quotes when he sees them, and has no hesitancy to use them, when they are appropriate - my favorite in this book was on page 191, "Using encryption on the Internet is the equivalent of arranging an armored car to deliver credit card information from someone living in a cardboard box to someone living on a park bench."

The author logically looks at where the world of cryptography is today and makes predictions as to where it is going in the future.

This book really gives one a much better understanding of the who/when/what/where, why and how of the world of cryptography and should be required reading for anyone designing systems to be used which involve the internet, or for even those of us, who want to be informed users.
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It's Just Me
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging & thorough introduction to digital security
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2020
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Martin starts with the ties between spy craft and digital security and uses them to teach what everyone today should now about cybersecurity. This is a fun and engaging book that uses well-told history to introduce codes and code-breaking, which is relevant from ancient use of codes to digital security today. The topic is important and Martin makes it interesting and easy to understand, even if this isn’t your area of interest (other than wanting to know about something you should know about). This reads like a book picked for pleasure reading, not something read for information only.

The basics of each chapter are:
Introduction – cyberspace, social dilemma, the author’s approach
1: Security in Cyberspace – typical day, atypical day, physical things that make us secure, importance of security context, the odds, security of the physical world, a cyber day, insecurity of cyberspace, nub of the problem, cryptography to the rescue
2: Keys and Algorithms – crucial role of a key, bits and bytes, where keys are, when a secret is not a key, recipes for security, numerical blenders, masters and secret recipes, tale of two algorithms, keys are key
3: Keeping Secrets – confidentiality, hide and seek, cracking codes, redeeming the Atbash cipher, encryption, vanilla encryption, encryption standards, the ubiquitous block cipher, key-distribution problem
4: Sharing Secrets with Strangers – so many keys, padlock madness story, padlocks in cyberspace, asymmetric encryption schemes, prime factor, digital padlock based on factoring, hard sums, problems with padlocks, best of symmetric and asymmetric encryption, pros and cons of asymmetric encryption
5: Digital Canaries – unreliability of data, degrees of integrity, fake news, data integrity or not, integrity checks, ISBN integrity example, stronger integrity checking, hash function, integrity in the presence of malice, data origin, problems with MACs, digital anti-padlocks, digital signatures, digital signatures are not signatures, wisdom of the crowd, banks bitcoin blockchain, integrity of integrity
6: Who’s Out There? – the need to know who, human versus machine, distinguishing who is who, agonizing passwords, dictionary password attacks, too many passwords, phishing, perfect passwords, digital boomerangs, challenge-response, anonymity, Tor
7: Breaking Cryptosystems – nuts and bolts are not enough, state of the art, knowns and unknowns, key length matters, protocol, from design to implementation, timing attacks, key management, good and bad keys, key distribution, beyond cryptography, human error, making cryptography work
8: The Cryptography Dilemma – problems with cryptography, societal control of encryption, breakable unbreakable cryptosystems, backdoors, backdoors become front doors, regulations, cryptopia, crypto war, mass encryption, Snowden, post Snowden, politics
9: Our Cryptographic Future – quantum, mass decryption, quantum key distribution, cryptography everywhere, technological singularity, trusting cryptography, your personal cryptography.

If you want a deeper understanding of cybersecurity than a simple list of “do this / don’t do that”, then I recommend this highly. But that’s JustMe. (I received this product in exchange for an honest review, and that is what I have offered here.)
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sweetmustard
3.0 out of 5 stars intro for (non-mathematical) grandparents
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2021
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Nice intro and high-lever perspective. Well researched and with useful references and notes.
Something you (or your grandparents or secondary school kids) could easily read and talk about over dinner or drinks.
No math/formulas/algorithms.
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Top reviews from other countries

richieloco
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2024
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I love this. I have have such a long commute to work and I travel in early and this is the first book that has kept me awake and engaged for years. It is well written, informative and just what I needed to understand more about digital security. I highly recommend this.
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richieloco
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2024
I love this. I have have such a long commute to work and I travel in early and this is the first book that has kept me awake and engaged for years. It is well written, informative and just what I needed to understand more about digital security. I highly recommend this.
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Khwaja Imran Mohammed
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice read & must read if you want to understand cryptography for digital security!
Reviewed in Australia on April 25, 2023
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This book on Cryptography explains how digital security is necessary where secret/public keys and crypto-systems are involved. The author Keith Martin has done a fanastic job with this book and it is very well suited for people with no knowledge on cryptography and encryption. I give it 5 stars.
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Khwaja Imran Mohammed
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice read & must read if you want to understand cryptography for digital security!
Reviewed in Australia on April 25, 2023
This book on Cryptography explains how digital security is necessary where secret/public keys and crypto-systems are involved. The author Keith Martin has done a fanastic job with this book and it is very well suited for people with no knowledge on cryptography and encryption. I give it 5 stars.
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Amelia Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, accessible and very well written
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2023
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I am fortunate to be on a MSc programme studying under the tutorship of Keith Martin so I bought and read this book as a taster for and intro to the cryptography module. I also recently heard him chatting with Bill Buchanan from Edinburgh university on a video where Keith mentioned an Amazon review that criticised the book because it ‘didn’t have any maths in it’ … which is precisely why I bought it!! :-) Since I know virtually no maths it was right up my street. It’s very well written and extremely accessible, has great analogies and Keith has a relaxed writing style that is easy to read for what to most people is probably going to be quite a dry subject, however the book brings cryptography into the real world for the man on the street in genuinely layman’s terms. If you want to get into the weeds then you need Everyday Cryptography, by the same author.
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amazvip
5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining technology book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2021
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Having read Keith's earlier book on cryptography “Everyday Cryptography” I had to read the next one and am glad I did. This book ”Cryptography - The key to digital security, how it works and why it matters" is one of the most entertaining technology book I have ever read. This is an easy to read book and introduces the concept of cryptography that one can understand easily. Keith’s ability to give example from the day to day life makes the book very interesting. This is the book if you want to know about cryptography in a simple and easy way.
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amazvip
5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining technology book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2021
Having read Keith's earlier book on cryptography “Everyday Cryptography” I had to read the next one and am glad I did. This book ”Cryptography - The key to digital security, how it works and why it matters" is one of the most entertaining technology book I have ever read. This is an easy to read book and introduces the concept of cryptography that one can understand easily. Keith’s ability to give example from the day to day life makes the book very interesting. This is the book if you want to know about cryptography in a simple and easy way.
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