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Department of Computer Science and Technology

Resource lists

 

Library resources

Rijndael

The block cipher called Rijndael was accepted by the American National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) from a list of five finalists. The AES was intended to replace the older Data Encryption Standard (DES). As such there are many resources available for this algorithm, some of which are listed below:

The Official standard
The official documentation for the AES standard was published in the Federal Information Processing Standards as FIPS 197. The online version can be found through the above link.

Other AES finalists

Data Encryption Standard

The forerunner to the Advanced Encryption Standard, DES was the source of much controversy, particularly with regard to the limited length of its key, which made automated 'brute-force' attacks a possibility. A selection of resources is listed below:

The Official standard
The official documentation for the algorithm published by NIST as FIPS 46-3.
Wikipedia entry
An entry for DES from the free online encyclopaedia which, in addition to an informal description of the algorithm, contains information on cryptanalytic and brute-force attacks. Also, a good bibliography and set of cross references make this a useful resource.
Miscellaneous links
Another collection of links to information of DES. This list includes sources of some software implementations and details of attacks in addition to definitions of the algorithm.

Computer security

Security engineering
Ross Anderson's book is a wide ranging introduction to the subject and recommended reading for the Tripos pt. 1A Software and security engineering course. Now in its third edition, the freely available online version is currently the older second edition.
Computer security and the internet
The full text of the book by Paul Van Oorschot now recommended for the pt. 1B Cybersecurity course
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies
A draft edition of the recommended book for the Distributed ledger technologies M.Phil course. The final printed book is available in the teaching collection in the Weat Hub.