cryptography

[hell18]

i know that there are 2 fundmental ways of cryptography

asymeteric and symeteric

is there any formulas for cryptography? i know its for a encryption system, but there must be formulas?

thanks

[selfAdjoint]

If there is a formula, eventually someone else will discover what it is and break your cipher. Historically the best cryptograms have been based on physical duplication of random keys (one time pads).

[Gunni]

Cryptography is a complex field, you can't really sum up the methods of it in one equation (At least I can't), but there's an excellent book available by Simon Singh that's called "The Code Book" that tells you how cryptography was invented, how it was developed, how the modern cryptography systems work (The RSA system) and what people think will replace RSA in the future. It's very interesting, there's not much math to follow, the math isn't hard and it's a very good read.

[chroot]

There are actually lots of forms of cryptography.

If you actually want algorithms and practical tools to build cryptographic systems, forget paperbacks. The best book, IMO, is Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography."

- Warren

[Jummeh]

Schneier's book doesn't tell you why the systems are used that way, infact it just tells you in a rather coarse way to "do this and do that"...

Try "Modern Cryptography: Theory and Practice" by Wenbo Mao
or "Cryptography" by Nigel Smart for a more mathematical look on crypto.