A piece of advice??

[Alan Olsen]

At 06:18 PM 12/10/00 +0200, FRANKY wrote:

>         Hello to everyone. I'm Alexis and as I'm new to  cryptography I
>would appreciate a piece of advice. I've read the book "Applied
>Cryptography" by Bruce Schneier and I also have the "ICSA Guide
>to cryptography". However I would like to know where could I find more
>books related to cryptography.


Just a note...  The ICSA crypto book is one of the WORST I have seen. It is 
very pro-GAK among other things.  (It also does not cover a number of 
topics that you would think. Kerberos gets a half a page.  I keep my copy 
as a reference of what crypto-systems are probably backdoored.

The Handbook of Applied Cryptography from CRC press is a good textbook 
approach to the field. (It is pretty expensive. About $90.)

>         Also (if I'm not causing enough trouble already) as I'm trying to
>secure one system I would like to kindly ask for guidance. How do we apply
>an algorithm to a whole system? I know how to encode a message , but a
>system?

You don't.  For security I suggest that you checkout one of the many books 
on firewalls and computer security specifically.

If you are trying to encrypt the entire drive, it depends on the OS as to 
what you would use.  The latest OpenBSD is supposed to have some 
interesting crypto-hooks.

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