Real-World Cryptography

If you’re browsing the web, using public APIs, making and receiving electronic payments, registering and logging in users, or experimenting with blockchain, you’re relying on cryptography. And you’re probably trusting a collection of tools, frameworks, and protocols to keep your data, users, and business safe. It’s important to understand these tools so you can make the best decisions about how, where, and why to use them. Real-World Cryptography teaches you applied cryptographic techniques to understand and apply security at every level of your systems and applications.

about the technology

Cryptography is the foundation of information security. This simultaneously ancient and emerging science is based on encryption and secure communication using algorithms that are hard to crack even for high-powered computer systems. Cryptography protects privacy, secures online activity, and defends confidential information, such as credit cards, from attackers and thieves. Without cryptographic techniques allowing for easy encrypting and decrypting of data, almost all IT infrastructure would be vulnerable.

about the book

Real-World Cryptography helps you understand the cryptographic techniques at work in common tools, frameworks, and protocols so you can make excellent security choices for your systems and applications. There’s no unnecessary theory or jargon―just the most up-to-date techniques you’ll need in your day-to-day work as a developer or systems administrator. Cryptography expert David Wong takes you hands-on with cryptography building blocks such as hash functions and key exchanges, then shows you how to use them as part of your security protocols and applications. Alongside modern methods, the book also anticipates the future of cryptography, diving into emerging and cutting-edge advances such as cryptocurrencies, password-authenticated key exchange, and post-quantum cryptography. Throughout, all techniques are fully illustrated with diagrams and real-world use cases so you can easily see how to put them into practice.

what’s inside

• Best practices for using cryptography
• Diagrams and explanations of cryptographic algorithms
• Identifying and fixing cryptography bad practices in applications
• Picking the right cryptographic tool to solve problems

about the reader

For cryptography beginners with no previous experience in the field.

about the author

David Wong is a senior engineer working on Blockchain at Facebook. He is an active contributor to internet standards like Transport Layer Security and to the applied cryptography research community. David is a recognized authority in the field of applied cryptography; he’s spoken at large security conferences like Black Hat and DEF CON and has delivered cryptography training sessions in the industry.