Cryptography for Developers

Cryptography for Developers gives developers the practical cryptographic tools they need in their daily work. It also provides them the contextual knowledge to understand how these 21st-century cryptographic tools have been fashioned in response to theoretical and technological advances in mathematics and computers that rendered the paradigms of classic and late 20th-century cryptography obsolete. The book focuses on the recipes for algorithms most commonly deployed by developers in practical applications, without delving into the details of the mathematical theory underlying them. The technical presentation of each algorithm in code is accompanied by a narrative account of the algorithm’s applications and historical development. Depending on the reader’s interest level, Cryptography for Developers may be read in its entirety or in its thematic parts, either as a technical manual of algorithms or as an introductory survey of modern cryptography. The technical heart of Cryptography for Developers describes cryptographic algorithms in current use, explains how they work and how to use them, and provides abundant practical examples from the libraries of popular programming languages, including Ruby, Java, C, PHP, JavaScript, Python, and Perl. Software architect José María Estévez proceeds to demonstrate with plentiful examples the protocols for combining algorithms and the methods for solving cryptographic problems commonly encountered by developers. The narrative portion of the book surveys the development of classical cryptography from ancient Athens through World War II, the computerization of cryptography in the second half of the 20th century, the explosive growth and proliferation of modern cryptography since the turn of the 21st century, and the forecast for future cryptographic developments driven by quantum computing and other technological and social trends.