Algorithms

[C Chadwick]

Daniel,

I'd recommend a good introductory reading (which is also quite
entertaining): "The Code Book" by Simon Singh. It talks about the origins of
symmetric ciphers and the basics (and the not-so-basics) of one-way ciphers
including the ones that are used in public key cryptography. RSA is
specifically covered along with the story of it's creation. As far as I know
ElGamal became popular after the book was published. DSA is covered in
theory, but not specifically (someone correct me here if I'm wrong. The book
covers the theory behind secure hash algorithms and presents some examples).

Since you mentioned you are a mathematician you might enjoy Applied
Cryptography by Bruce Schneier more. It goes into more depth, but leaves out
a lot of the history (so I'm told).  It centers more on the algorithms
themselves than the theory (again, so I'm told).

Clint
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Carrera" <dcarrera@math.toronto.edu>
To: <gnupg-users@gnupg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 12:31 PM
Subject: Algorithms


> Hello,
>
> Where can I learn more about the security of the GPG algorithms?  Like
> DSA, RSA, ElGamal and which ever others might be used.
>
> I wish to learn more about the probable security associated with each key
> length.
>
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Daniel.
>
>
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