Crypto Dictionary: 500 Tasty Tidbits for the Curious Cryptographer

by Jean-Philippe Aumasson

Rigorous in its definitions yet easy to read, Crypto Dictionary covers the field of cryptography in an approachable, and sometimes humorous way.

This book will become the go-to dictionary (and encyclopedia) for crypto novices and experts alike. It covers technical terms found in modern software analysis, such as block cipher, while providing important context for historical references like the crypto wars, sharing amusing anecdotes (ever hear of the Hasty Pudding Cipher?), and describing major conferences in the field, including Eurocrypt and Real World Crypto.

Crypto Dictionary describes the field's most innovative techniques, like threshold cryptography, as well as those developed in the context of blockchain applications, in a broadly approachable way.

Genres: Technology, Technical

160 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2021

About the author

Jean-Philippe (JP) Aumasson is cofounder and chief security officer of Taurus, a global provider of crypto asset management technology for financial institutions. He's also a cryptographer, author of the reference book Serious Cryptography, and co-designer of the algorithms BLAKE2, BLAKE3, SipHash, and MLH-DSA. He holds a PhD from EPFL, Switzerland, and gave research and outreach talks at major events such as Black Hat USA, and DEF CON. JP's work has been featured in Wire, Techcrunch, Ars Technica, Threatpost, and other major online magazines.

JP was described as a "luminary" and "well-regarded expert in crypt analysis"​ (sic) by journalists, and as "a classic cryptographer and quite an understandable of the sort".

https://aumasson.jp
https://twitter.com/veorq
https://taurushq.com

Reviews

[Andrew Douma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A recent purchase to brush up on my crypto vocabulary and already finding the cliff notes for some terms very useful to reduce the turnaround time needed to validate what I think I knew is accurate or if my human memory/inherent biases got in the way. It covers everything from broadcast encryption to crypto currency.

[Héctor Iván Patricio Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro con un poco de humor pero que se toma muchos temas en serio, explica conceptos de criptografía de manera rápida, aunque en alguno profundiza un poquito. Creo que es una buena referencia para dar una explicación sencilla, pero aún así hay muchos términos matemáticos y cosas que te tienes que pensar varias veces para poder entenderlas.

Y puede que cuando busques una entrada encuentres una descripción humorística.

[Jasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A birds-eye view on a range of cryptography topics explained by a renown cryptographer. The book covers most terms and things related to cryptography in enough detail to understand them but not deep enough to get "too technical". Some humour is also used throughout the book, such as noting that base64 is indeed encoding and not encryption.

A good , quick reed to cover the most common terms used in cryptography.

[Luuuuu and Sooooon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is ok to skim through. I believe there could be lots of fun real stories to include in this book.