In this post, we have prepared a curated top list of reading recommendations for beginners and experienced. This hand-picked list of the best Cryptography books and tutorials can help fill your brain this April and ensure you’re getting smarter. We have also mentioned the brief introduction of each book based on the relevant Amazon or Reddit descriptions.
- The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography (2000)
- Serious Cryptography: A Practical Introduction to Modern Encryption (2017)
- Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction (2002)
- Cryptography Engineering (2010)
- Cryptography (1955)
- Cryptography For Dummies (2004)
- Break the Code: Cryptography for Beginners (Dover Children’s Activity Books) (2013)
- Cryptography And Network Security, 7Th Edition (2016)
- Cryptanalysis: A Study of Ciphers and Their Solution (1989)
- Cracking Codes with Python: An Introduction to Building and Breaking Ciphers (2018)
- Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python: A beginner’s guide to cryptography and computer programming with Python (2013)
- Modern Cryptography and Elliptic Curves: A Beginner’s Guide (Student Mathematical Library) (2017)
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography (2000)
In his first book since the bestselling Fermat’s Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives.
Author(s): Simon Singh
Serious Cryptography: A Practical Introduction to Modern Encryption (2017)
This practical guide to modern encryption breaks down the fundamental mathematical concepts at the heart of cryptography without shying away from meaty discussions of how they work. You’ll learn about authenticated encryption, secure randomness, hash functions, block ciphers, and public-key techniques such as RSA and elliptic curve cryptography. Each chapter includes a discussion of common implementation mistakes using real-world examples and details what could go wrong and how to avoid
Author(s): Jean-Philippe Aumasson
Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction (2002)
This book is a clear and informative introduction to cryptography and data protection–subjects of considerable social and political importance. It explains what algorithms do, how they are used, the risks associated with using them, and why governments should be concerned. Important areas are highlighted, such as Stream Ciphers, block ciphers, public key algorithms, digital signatures, and applications such as e-commerce. This book highlights the explosive impact of cryptography on modern society, with, for example, the evolution of the internet and the introduction of more sophisticated banking methods.
Author(s): Fred Piper, Sean Murphy
Cryptography Engineering (2010)
The ultimate guide to cryptography, updated from an author team of the world’s top cryptography experts. Cryptography is vital to keeping information safe, in an era when the formula to do so becomes more and more challenging. Written by a team of world-renowned cryptography experts, this essential guide is the definitive introduction to all major areas of cryptography: message security, key negotiation, and key management. You’ll learn how to think like a cryptographer.
Author(s): Niels Ferguson, Bruce Schneier
Cryptography (1955)
“Those who delight in puzzles can find much to ponder here.” — Science News Letter. “Will be well received by anyone really interested in the subject.” — Scientific Book Club Review. Readers interested in secret writing will find this book an excellent elementary explanation of transposition and substitution ciphers, codes, and their solutions.
Author(s): Laurence D. Smith
Cryptography For Dummies (2004)
Cryptography is the most effective way to achieve data security and is essential to e-commerce activities such as online shopping, stock trading, and banking. This invaluable introduction to the basics of encryption covers everything from the terminology used in the field to specific technologies to the pros and cons of different implementations.
Author(s): Chey Cobb
Break the Code: Cryptography for Beginners (Dover Children’s Activity Books) (2013)
No, it’s not a message from outer space! Just read it backwards, starting from the bottom line, to discover what this specially coded message says. (The extra letter “X” at the beginning was thrown in just to make the message a bit more mysterious.) Codes have been used for centuries. Now, with the help of this entertaining book, you, too, will be able to decipher dozens of secret messages.
Author(s): Bud Johnson
Cryptography And Network Security, 7Th Edition (2016)
As the disciplines of cryptography and network security have matured, more practical, readily available applications to enforce network security have developed. This text provides a practical survey of both the principles and practice of cryptography and network security. First, the basic issues to be addressed by a network security capability are explored through a tutorial and survey of cryptography and network security technology.
Author(s): William Stallings
Cryptanalysis: A Study of Ciphers and Their Solution (1989)
Gaines’s Cryptanalysis (formerly published as Elementary Cryptanalysis) is a standard elementary and intermediate text for persons seriously interested in modern science methods for enciphering and deciphering cryptograms.
Author(s): Helen F. Gaines
Cracking Codes with Python: An Introduction to Building and Breaking Ciphers (2018)
Learn how to program in Python while making and breaking ciphers—algorithms used to create and send secret messages! After a crash course in Python programming basics, you’ll learn to make, test, and hack programs that encrypt text with classical ciphers like the transposition cipher and Vigenère cipher.
Author(s): Al Sweigart
Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python: A beginner’s guide to cryptography and computer programming with Python (2013)
* * * This is the old edition! The new edition is under the title “Cracking Codes with Python” by Al Sweigart * * * Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python not only teaches you how to write in secret ciphers with paper and pencil. This book teaches you how to write your own cipher programs and also the hacking programs that can break the encrypted messages from these ciphers. Unfortunately, the programs in this book won’t get the reader in trouble with the law (or rather, fortunately) but
Author(s): Al Sweigart
Modern Cryptography and Elliptic Curves: A Beginner’s Guide (Student Mathematical Library) (2017)
This book offers the beginning undergraduate student some of the vista of modern mathematics by developing and presenting the tools needed to gain an understanding of the arithmetic of elliptic curves over finite fields and their applications to modern cryptography. This gradual introduction also makes a significant effort to teach students how to produce or discover a proof by presenting mathematics as an exploration, and at the same time, it provides the necessary mathematical underpinnings to investigate the practical and implementation side of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).
Author(s): Thomas R. Shemanske
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Best Cryptography Books You Must Read
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some Cryptography books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Modern Cryptography Volume 2: A Classical Introduction To Informational And Mathematical Principle
Author(s): Zhiyong Zheng , Kun Tian , Fengxia Liu
ID: 3533681, Publisher: Springer, Year: 2023, Size: 3 Mb, Format: pdf
Modern Cryptography
Author(s): Zhiyong Zheng, Kun Tian, Fengxia Liu
ID: 3554975, Publisher: Springer, Year: 2023, Size: 3 Mb, Format: pdf
Cryptography, Codes and Cyber Security: First International Conference, I4CS 2022, Casablanca, Morocco, October 27-28, 2022, Proceedings
Author(s): Abderrahmane Nitaj, Karim Zkik
ID: 3590516, Publisher: Springer, Year: 2023, Size: 4 Mb, Format: pdf
Please note that this booklist is not absolute. Some books are really chart-busters according to Washington Post, others are written by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Drop a comment if you have any feedback on the list.
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography is great for someone looking for just stories and history.
Also try Code Girls, Story about the American Women who secretly served as codebreakers during World War II