Cryptography Primer

Abstract

In modern cryptology, there are some basic mechanisms, which are essential to achieve security in distributed systems and hence in e-postage systems. We introduce these mechanisms at a conceptual level, which explains their security properties and how their cryptographic keys, if any, shall be managed. This will prepare our understanding of the existing e-postage systems in Chapter 6 on page 127, Chapter 7 on page 167 and the particular threats that apply to these systems (see Chapter 8 on page 183). Readers who are interested in a more detailed description and analysis of these mechanisms are referred to the Handbook of Applied Cryptography of Menezes, Oorschot and Vanstone [54], the Encyclopedia of Security and Cryptography of van Tilborg [74], or the reference work Applied Cryptography by Schneier [70].

Keywords

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