The first printing has already sold out and it has gone through a second printing, which it appears will not take more than a couple of more months to sell out as well. This book is intended for a one-semester introductory undergraduate course in cryptography. The text has been designed in such a way that the reader with little mathematical background can work through the text, and the reader with a firm mathematical background will encounter sufficient challenging material to sustain interest.
Any mathematics required is presented herein in advance of the cryptographic material requiring it.
The impetus for the writing of this text arose from this author's involvement in designing an undergraduate course in introductory cryptography for the Mathematics Department at the University of Calgary in 1998. No suitable text for that course was on the market, nor is there one at the time of this writing, hence the incarnation of this one. Essentially, the text is meant for any reader who wants an introduction to the area of cryptography. The core material is self-contained so that the reader may learn the basics of cryptography without having to go to another source. Also, for the advanced topics in optional Chapter Six, such as Section One on elliptic curve methods in primality testing, factoring, and cryptosystems, some algebraic background is required, but the basics of elliptic curves are developed in that section for the benefit of the reader.