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Malicious Cryptography: Exposing Cryptovirology Ordering: |
In the public eye, the word cryptography is virtually synonymous with security. The field as a whole is hailed as the primary enabling technology for electronic commerce, and provides for confidential as well as authentic digital communications. However, all that glitters is not gold, and Malicious Cryptography is the first book to reveal just how dark the dark side of cryptography truly is. The book presents a series of advanced cryptographic payloads for computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horse programs that are specifically tailored for their hosts. It also covers numerous countermeasures that can help protect against such attacks.
Cryptology is the study of the hidden word. It is an essential technology in times of war and has been in existence for thousands of years. The strategic positioning of troops is both a logistical challenge as well as a challenge from the perspective of information theory, since command and control information is subject to interception. It may be argued that cryptography has always had a dark side, since an enemy that uses it effectively will be able to conceal future enemy troop movements and other valuable information from allied forces. However, Malicious Cryptography digs much deeper into the dual-edged nature of cryptography. It shows how modern cryptographic paradigms and tools, including asymmetric cryptography, pseudorandom generators, reduction arguments, the random oracle model, etc. can in fact be used to degrade system security. The book details advanced computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horse programs that mount unprecedented attacks against their hosts. In short, it provides a glimpse of the future of information warfare, and also covers many of the tools that can be used to guard against these advanced threats to computing environments.
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