Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice (5th Edition)

William Stallings' Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice, 5e is a practical survey of cryptography and network security with unmatched support for instructors and students.

In this age of universal electronic connectivity, viruses and hackers, electronic eavesdropping, and electronic fraud, security is paramount. 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. Then, the practice of network security is explored via practical applications that have been implemented and are in use today. An unparalleled support package for instructors and students ensures a successful teaching and learning experience.

The new edition has been updated to include coverage of the latest topics including expanded coverage of block cipher modes of operation, including authenticated encryption; revised and expanded coverage of AES; expanded coverage of pseudorandom number generation; new coverage of federated identity, HTTPS, Secure Shell (SSH) and wireless network security; completely rewritten and updated coverage of IPsec; and a new chapter on legal and ethical issues.

Customer Reviews:

Not outstanding

By CompEngGradStudent - April 16, 2007

OK, this book has received prizes and stellar reviews here and elsewhere but personally I didn't like it very much. First, the text and the exercises lack mathematical depth. There are entire chapters, such as the one on AES, which add hardly anything to the official standard, and the book explanation is often harder to understand, and especially more ambiguous than the official standard of the protocols it is supposed to explain.

On the other hand, it is a relatively "polished" book, without too many errors or typos. Most of the time, it gives gives enough information to implement the algorithms it talks about. But it certainly doesn't give you enough to become a cryptographer, or to evaluate the security of a new algorithm, or things like that.

Worst writing ever

By rbt_austin "rbt_austin" - October 29, 2008

There has never been a more poorly written book, to my knowledge. The subject matter is fascinating and it is hard to imagine a less well-executed explanation of this material. It is difficult to count how many times that concepts are introduced and explained with statements that begin "It is obvious that..." - I've got news for the author, not much of those things are obvious, and smaller books explain the same material in much clearer and accessible language. I personally prefer the writings of Bruce Schneier on the subject. The rough thing is, the professor of the class I'm taking picked this for the textbook... I've had to download errata, search out information online, and buy other books to try to cover the material. One of the exercises is to brute-force attack a misprinted encrypted message, and one has to know to go to the author's website to download the corrected ciphertext. That totally sucks in an $80 book.

up to date on using cryptography

By W Boudville - August 26, 2006

Stallings presents an updated education on cryptography. With a secondary emphasis on network security. In the cryptographic sections, there is a strong mathematical flavour. The narrative is not a high level, management-type discussion. It favours the professional mathematician and programmer, and ideally the intersection of these two skill sets.

Unlike some other books on cryptography, here considerable space is also given to hash functions. These can sometimes be used as an alternative to a full encrypt/decrypt approach. If you are designing a system, you should ponder carefully whether a hashing approach might suffice. Usually if you only need to authenticate a message or item. Since, as the book relates, for all the complexity of the various hash algorithms, hashing is far simpler and faster than public key encryption. And there is no problem with key revocation. Another great simplification.

The book covers the latest work on hashing. It appears that the... read more