Comments

Chelloveck January 24, 2014 1:01 PM

SECOND edition? What Johnny-come-lately posted that? I still have the first edition on my shelf. I should get you to sign it and squirrel it away as an investment for when I retire.

Kaitnieks January 24, 2014 1:05 PM

I have that book and I keep it at home for personal protection. If someone breaks in, I’ll have something heavy to fight with.

Kaitnieks January 24, 2014 1:15 PM

Sorry for this, but the mention of the book brought back memories. It was some years ago when I accidentally noticed the same book in a Latvian bookstore together with some other books in English. I don’t know how the hell it got there, but it sure stood out. There was just a single copy, I took it in my hands, started reading and just fell in love at once. It sure was expensive, maybe like 15% of average Latvian monthly salary at that time, no wonder it didn’t sell in volumes, but I had to purchase it immediately. After that I read it in tram while going to work and back and I actually felt like I was learning something new, at least in concepts. And that book changed me in other ways, too, I learned that buying books from Amazon can be fun. I wish reading was as fun.

Unnamed January 24, 2014 1:20 PM

A great book! One of my all time favorites and my first purchase on Amazon over 17 years ago!

fatbloke January 24, 2014 2:28 PM

Reading the Preface, it is still as relevant as ever in terms of Govt, surveillance and privacy.

Jason Richardson-White January 24, 2014 2:33 PM

Another freebie pirated copy here

An infamous illegal download indexing site. Half the population of China knows mathematics because of this site (back of the envelope calculation).

But they ported Applied Cryptography into .chm and hid it under Finances & Money.

Jason Richardson-White January 24, 2014 2:34 PM

Oops. That link didn’t work. Just put in Applied Cryptography into the Title field. You’ll find it (unless Bruce has previously taken it down).

Jonathan Wilson January 24, 2014 4:45 PM

I still have my copy of Applied Cryptography (although right now its sitting in a box on the back of a moving truck 🙂

That book (plus the copies of Practical Cryptography and Secrets and Lies that were in the box-set I bought) was what got me so interested in cryptography and security.

Spaceman Spiff January 24, 2014 7:13 PM

I too have the first edition on my shelf. Bruce, I hope you don’t mind if I downloaded this edition also? 🙂 FWIW, can’t you release the tome with a Creative Commons license? Then, it won’t be “pirated” any longer…

DaveK January 24, 2014 8:03 PM

I wonder if it was put up by the NSA and has subtle misprints placed in the formulas and algorithms to break them?

Wesley Parish January 24, 2014 11:27 PM

For what very little it’s worth, Bruce, the likes of the RIAA and MPAA have over-indulged in theatre of some sort or another over “piracy” – copyright misappropriation – with one doofus informing us that “piracy” was worse than “terrorism”.

I see an opportunity to hit back at the misappropriation of concern for copyright misappropriation: (besides recommending a holiday in Guantanamo Bay “Terrorist” Penitentiary for said MPAA or RIAA doofus) take back the copyright of your long-out-of-print books and release the text under a Creative Commons license and the source code under the GPL or LGPL. Take the wind out of the sails of the “pirates” and the sails out of the wind of the anti-“piracy” doofuses.

foo January 24, 2014 11:58 PM

@Kaitneiks:

Yeah, I like that book a lot too! A reliable rumor has it that the 2nd edition of Applied Cryptography is also excellent for stopping bullets.

herman January 25, 2014 12:44 AM

I bought the original many moons ago (and I even read it too) – so can I download a copy now? 😉

Petter January 25, 2014 3:12 AM

The metadata of the PDF is interesting. 🙂

Creator: Bruce Schbeier
Created: 18 jul 2003 12:28
Created with: Adobe Photoshop 7.0

@mmorriss13 January 25, 2014 12:00 PM

We all know the book is great. Not many authors would publish a link to a pirated copy of their work though. Thanks again Bruce!

code January 27, 2014 1:22 AM

what’s a good recommended modern book? I’ve scraped the internet for matthew greens crypto engineering course which was excellent, moxies various blogs, matasano challenges and a mit course but could use a modern book.

I’m not looking to invent libraries just use them responsibly so I don’t fall victim to the doom principal and other gotchas.

moo January 27, 2014 7:10 PM

@code:

The book you want is titled “Practical Cryptography” (or at least my copy is… apparently some fool has re-named it “Cryptography Engineering” for the second edition.. hmm). Anyway, it was also written by our host Bruce, and contains lots of advice about how to use crypto responsibly.

https://www.schneier.com/book-practical.html

cdmiller January 28, 2014 10:55 PM

Thanks. My original on the shelf (1996 edition with the Wired Magazine endorsement on the cover, 6th printing) is a little hard to read. It got damaged by a varnish spill (snowshoes) years ago and I never replaced it, just washed it off as best I could so it’s slightly stained and water damaged. Also nice to be able to just download the algorithm zip files now rather than send $40 for the MS-DOS disk set 🙂

Robert M June 16, 2015 1:47 PM

Well I own the book. Ok, it’s the First Edition. The link is useful, though, because my book is at home and I am in the office. Thanks for publishing it.

Evgeny Krustev December 4, 2015 2:36 PM

Excellent book. I consider it the best book in cryptography and it is number 1 in the list of required textbooks in my courses for more than 10 years. Thank you, Bruce, for publishing it!

Wael December 4, 2015 4:20 PM

Excellent book indeed! I still have it — the Blue cover one. I still remember some sentences from 20 years ago.

Wael December 4, 2015 4:24 PM

Looking at it, it’s amazing how long ago twenty years was.

It’s amazing how fast 20 years passed by? 🙂

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