From: "Perry E. Metzger" <pmetzger@lehman.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 20:34:28 PST
To: fnerd@smds.com (FutureNerd Steve Witham)
Subject: Re: Non-techie Crypto book?
In-Reply-To: <9401060124.AA05687@smds.com>
Message-ID: <199401060433.XAA15461@snark>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



FutureNerd Steve Witham says:
> Is there a good not-very-technical, but up-to-date book on
> crypto?
> 
> An acquaintance asks.

No, there is nothing that is nontechnical and up-to-date. Indeed, I'd
question the very idea -- people trying to understand cryptography in
enough detail that they would understand what has happened in the last
decade had best learn the technical details. On a non-technical level
you can't write more than a dozen pages before exhausting the
information you can convey about the technologies.

The best TECHNICAL book out there on crypto at the moment is of course
Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography", which is a wonderful piece of
work.

Perry