It serves as an introduction to the more practical aspects of both conventional and public-key cryptography
It is a valuable source of the latest techniques and algorithms for the serious practitioner
It provides an integrated treatment of the field, while still presenting each major topic as a self-contained unit
It provides a mathematical treatment to accompany practical discussions
It contains enough abstraction to be a valuable reference for theoreticians while containing enough detail to actually allow implementation of the algorithms discussed
Now in its third printing, this is the definitive cryptography reference that the novice as well as experienced developers, designers, researchers, engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians alike will use.