From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204)
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 94 16:50:48 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Need info on Encyption book
Message-ID: <9403040050.AA14673@anchor.ho.att.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> >Has anyone heard of this book [_Top_Secret_ - Data Encryption Techniques] and 
> >is it with the $19.95 that they want for it?
> 
> Only if you have a pressing and immediate need for a doorstop, or need
> special help solving the "Cryptoquotes" in your local paper.

If I'm not mixing it up with a similar book I saw in the store,
I wouldn't be *quite* that negative; I'll comment on the two together.
They're not academic books, and if you're using PGP there's not much 
you'll gain from them.  The big weaknesses I saw were:
- not mentioning that the techniques discussed are way outdated
  and easily broken by professionals (they tend to say this for
  the simpler methods, just not for the more complex ones.)
- not discussing the *existence* of mathematical crypto techniques;
  it's ok not to go into details, depending on the scope of the book,
  but there should at least be pointers to the topics.

One interesting feature of the books I looked at was that one of them
came with a floppy disk with code on it.  I didn't notice anything
on the first few pages about "Not for export" or a mention that
the government treats crypto as munitions that need special permits
to export - I assume the authors are unaware of this, or that the
NSA doesn't really care about this level of crypto any more than
they care about rot-13 being exported :-) - but you'd think the
publishers would notice....

		Bill