Applied Cryptography Engineering
From the post:
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a red-blooded American programmer with a simmering interest in cryptography. And my guess is your interest came from Bruce Schneier’s Applied Cryptography.
Applied Cryptography is a deservedly famous book that lies somewhere between survey, pop-sci advocacy, and almanac. It taught two generations of software developers everything they know about crypto. It’s literate, readable, and ambitious. What’s not to love?
Just this: as an instruction manual, Applied Cryptography is dreadful. Even Schneier seems to concede the point. This article was written with several goals: to hurry along the process of getting Applied Cryptography off the go-to stack of developer references, to point out the right book to replace it with, and to spell out what you else you need to know even after reading that replacement. Finally, I wrote this as a sort of open letter to Schneier and his co-authors.
Highly entertaining review of Applied Cryptography, its successor, Cryptography Engineering, and further reading on cryptography.
Personally I would pick up a copy of Applied Cryptography because of its place in the history of cryptography.
I first saw this in Nat Torkington’s Four short links: 29 July 2013.