[Cryptography] Where should I start with cryptography?

[Henry Baker]

At 07:31 AM 11/19/2014, Hanno Böck wrote:
>Am Tue, 18 Nov 2014 20:50:16 -0400 schrieb Juan Francisco Verhook Greco <jfverhook at hotmail.com>:
>
>> Hi, my name is Juan. I'm a young boy that is beginning with
>> cryptography. I know python and basic c++, linux enthusiast, still
>> though I just began with cryptography I want one day to build my own
>> cryptographic hash function.  Where should I begin?  I would appreciate
>> any topics regarding anything.  Thanks in advance
>
>A very good start is this online course by Dan Boneh:
>https://www.coursera.org/course/crypto

Yes, Dan's course is excellent (I think all the portions are also available
on Youtube), but Dan's course seems to be aimed at those who wish to become
crypto researchers, as he spends a lot of time on the concepts needed to do
proofs of indistinguishability.

I've often found it easier to study crypto using the original papers from
the '70's and '80's, before the math got so formal and obscured the
insights.

Start with Wikipedia & follow the main references.  The good news is
that virtually all of the papers are available on the Internet if you're
willing to do a bit of searching.  Also, sometimes Wikipedia explains
things better than the original papers did !