Why buy an old book on cryptography?
This book was written in 1997, describing the world of Internet Cryptography at that time. Since then, many details have changed, but the higher-level concepts have remained constant. The book examines cryptography and Internet security from the point of view of what goes wrong, which makes it easier to understand why security experts choose such odd ways of doing things. In addition, the book contains prioritized checklists of security features that successful Internet security systems and products should have. These lists were designed to stand the test of time and the evolution of new things, like the Advanced Encryption Standard. While specific recommendations regarding individual crypto algorithms and protocols may become obsolete, the underlying recommendations (that you use proven techniques that have been investigated by the open cryptography community) remain true today. Following a surge of sales when it first came out, the book has continued to sell steadily, if modestly. Th
