Guide to Elliptic Curve Cryptography (Springer Professional Computing)

A broad-ranging expository guidebook on EEC cryptosystems and technology, written by leading EEC researchers and authorities. All aspects of the topic are clearly presented (accessible technical level, i.e., B.S. degree), with plenty of supporting real-world examples. An essential reference for practitioners or professionals in computer science, computer engineering, network design, and network/data security, as well as a useful self-study resource for researchers.

User review
fabulous introduction to implementing ECC
I bought this book because I was designing a cryptographic protocol, and wanted to know if I could use ECC in my design. It begins with an explanation of `traditional` public key cryptography (i.e., cryptography over prime fields), introduces binary fields and elliptic curves, shows how to perform computations over elliptic curves, puts this together into ECC protocols, and then includes very useful implementaiton information. This book does a good job explaining not only how to use ECC algorithms, but why they work.

As advertised, this book doesn't go into too much mathematical depth, omitting most proofs. This doesn't mean that there is no math in this book; if you don't have a decent background in algebra (no, not the stuff you learned in seventh grade), you're likely to get confused. However, if you have a little background in theoretical math and cryptography, you'll find this a very readable and easy to understand book.

The one thing that's left out of this book are intellectual property issues. Certicom owns a lot of patents on ECC, and it's not clear which ideas in this book are covered by Certicom patents. This is a minor complaint though; overall, the book is excellent. It's rare to find a book that is so exactly on target. Highly recommeneded.

User review
Detailed and practical
This is the only source I've found that goes into the nuts and bolts of elliptic curve (EC) cryptography. The mathematical content is rich, although proofs are generally in references rather than in the text itself. The real value is in its many and detailed algorithm examples, and in the way it builds up to them.

Before it even gets into the text, Hankerson et al have created a model of clarity. In addition to the usual, front matter includes a list of abbreviations. If you've ever choked on the alphabet soup in other books, you'll appreciate how this makes the discussion much easier to absorb. There's also a list of the algorithms presented - what the practitioner wanted in the first place.

After an introductory chapter, the authors present finite field arithmetic in a thorough but readable way. First they present prime fields over the integers, then optimal extension fields and (most importantly) binary fields. There's nothing here for the cut&paste programmer, but dozens of algorithms help the thoughtful developer work through material that is immensely complicated in other presentations. Other goodies, like Karatsuba-Ofman fast multiplication appear here as well.

The third chapter is the book's real payload: EC techniques. I've been looking for years for a book that was so explicit in the how-to, without watering down the technical content. This is practical stuff - not just the theory of EC operations, but the techniques that make EC calculations practical for high-speed implementations.

The rest of the book - about half - discusses what to do with EC codes. That includes protocols for choosing parameters, public-key and signature algorithms, and standard kinds of attacks. It also includes hardware-level description of possible implementations, down to specific instruction sets and cache structures and different kinds of chip implementations. That leads to another set of discussions on attacks, the kind that go in through the power supply or RF emissions. Appendices provide or point to pragmatic details such as parameters to use or software support available.

The only thing that could be improved in this book is the index - it's just too brief, and lacks the thoroughness the rest of the book led me to expect. I hope you realize just how small a complaint that is. In all other ways, this book meets the highest expectations.

Highly recommended for anyone who needs to understand exactly how EC cryptography works, right down to the bit level.

//wiredweird

User review
A very nice introduction to the field
This book is a must have if you are interested in implementing elliptic curve cryptography. It does not have any of the juicy ellpitic curve mathematics, but that is okay as this book is directed towards engineers and others who want to learn about how elliptic curve cryptosystems are being deployed.