Crypto 101

by Laurens Van Houtven

This book is intended as an introduction to cryptography for pro-
grammers of any skill level. It’s a continuation of a talk of the same
name, which was given by the author at PyCon 2013.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction

238 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Dimos Raptis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty good introductory book on the main cryptography primitives and how they can be composed to build full protocols, like TLS. I can say it is quite easy to read (given it's a book about cryptography, which is a quite complex field) - it took me a couple of weeks to read. I had also completed the Coursera course on Cryptography before reading the book, so I believed I wouldn't gain much from reading it. However, I have to admit the book gave me a slightly different perspective and helped me fill some gaps. The book is essentially open-source, which means readers are welcome to offer feedback and improve sections, where possible. That comes with positives and negatives. On the positive side, the book will keep getting better as feedback from readers come in. It's also free! However, there are several parts in the book that contained TODOs and there were also parts that were theoretically completed, but it still felt like something was missing. I was oscillating between a rating of 3 and 4, because I wanted to encourage people being on the fence to read it but at the same time inform them about the caveats (wish I could give a 3.5, but Goodreads doesn't support that yet).

[Brian Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a darn good introductory to the world of Crypto.

It covers lots of ground with decent (though not thoroughly deep) depth in a very approachable way - easy to grok diagrams and language make crypto that much more fun to read.

The version I read still has portions of the book that need to be completed and I haven't worked my way through the external links in the Appendix but everything that there is worth its weight in gold - especially as a broad refresher.

I especially appreciated the equations, examples and Python code in some sections because it helped clarify my somewhat fuzzy understanding of the text.

Highly recommended as an Introductory book to Crypto before you read anything else...

[Xinyu · Rating 4 out of 5]

历时快一年，终于把这本书读完了。对于像我一样对密码学一窍不通的人来说还是挺有帮助的，至少了解了一些基本的概念。书里还有一些未完成的部分和有深度的章节，看不懂的时候会去 YouTube 找相关视频翻翻看，相关的概念都有

[Derik · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’ll be a good book when it’s completed.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s currently unfinished but this is already the best practical intro to cryptography I’ve read.

[Rene Stein]

B1E2 (U)

[Damien · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good cover up of the crypto field. Still some rough edges (but text is in progress), and the structure is sometimes a bit awkward, but on the whole a very rich read ! kudos

[Mahdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is a starter guide , it will show you lots of different crypto constructs , so if you are at the doorstep then give it a try
if you are looking for deep and precise details then you should not read this book.