Nigel Smart - Böcker

This engaging and accessible text addresses the fundamental question: What Is Computer Science? The book showcases a set of representative concepts broadly connected by the theme of information security, for which the presentation of each topic can be treated as a "mini" lecture course, demonstrating how it allows us to solve real problems, as well as how it relates to other subjects. The discussions are further supported by numerous examples and practical hands-on exercises. Features: presents a concise introduction to the study of algorithms and describes how computers work; introduces the concepts of data compression, and error detection and correction; highlights the role of data structures; explores the topic of web-search; reviews both historic and modern cryptographic schemes, examines how a physical system can leak information and discusses the idea of randomness; investigates the science of steganography; provides additional supplementary material at an associated website.

He takes a modern approach, where defining what is meant by "secure" is as important as creating something that achieves that goal, and security definitions are central to the discussion throughout. The author balances a largely non-rigorous style — many proofs are sketched only — with appropriate formality and depth.

He takes a modern approach, where defining what is meant by "secure" is as important as creating something that achieves that goal, and security definitions are central to the discussion throughout. The author balances a largely non-rigorous style — many proofs are sketched only — with appropriate formality and depth.

The10thintheseriesofIMAConferencesonCryptographyandCodingwasheld at the RoyalAgricultural College, Cirencester, during 19-21 December 2005. As usual, the venue provided a relaxed and informal atmosphere for attendees to discuss work and listen to the collection of talks. The program consisted of four invited talks and 26 contributed talks. The invitedtalkswheregivenbyTuviEtzion,UeliMaurer,AlfredMenezesandAmin Shokrollahi, and three of these invited talks appear as papers in this volume. Special thanks must go to these four speakers as they helped to set the tone, by coveringall the areasthe meeting aimed to cover,from cryptographythrough to coding. In addition the best speakers are often the hardest to persuade to come to a meeting, as they are usually the most busy. We therefore feel privileged to have had a meeting with four such distinguished speakers. The contributed talks were selected from 94 submissions. This is nearly twice thenumberofsubmissionsforthepreviousmeetingin2003.Thisisanindication of the strength of the subject and the interest in the IMA series of meetings as a venue to present new work.The contributed talks ranged over a wide number of areas, including information theory, coding theory, number theory and as- metric and symmetric cryptography. Subtopics included a number of current "hot topics," such as algebraic cryptanalysis and cryptographic systems based on bilinear pairings. Assembling the conference program and these proceedings required the help of a large number of individuals. I would like to thank them all here.