Cryptography has become essential as bank transactions, credit card infor-mation, contracts, and sensitive medical information are sent through inse-cure channels. This book is concerned with the mathematical, especially algebraic, aspects of cryptography. It grew out of many courses presented by the authors over the past twenty years at various universities and covers a wide range of topics in mathematical cryptography. It is primarily geared towards graduate students and advanced undergraduates in mathematics and computer science, but may also be of interest to researchers in the area.

Besides the classical methods of symmetric and private key encryption, the book treats the mathematics of cryptographic protocols and several unique topics such as