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PGP: Pretty Good Privacy ($29.95 list)
Simon Garfinkel
O´Reilly
Mike Hudack
Editor-in-Chief
Pretty Good Privacy is considered, and rightly so, the most reliable and usable consumer encryption program available today. Originally developed and released by Phil Zimmermann in 1991, it has grown into something of a dynasty owned by Network Associates.
By 1995 PGP became so popular that O´Reilly published a book on the subject. Although the book would seem outdated there are lots of reasons this isn´t the case.
A lot of people stopped upgrading their Pretty Good Privacy installations after version 2.6.2 -- that´s when Network Associates took over the program. This book stops at the same place, but for time constraints, and not commercialism and conspiracy theories.
The book explains three things very well -- the history of PGP and modern cryptology, the inner workings of PGP, RSA and public key cryptology and the use of PGP 2.6.2. For obvious reasons the latter portion of the book shouldn´t be usefull to too many people -- a very good readme file comes with PGP. The rest, however, makes for an excellant, enjoyable and informative read.
Chapters one through seven cover everything from the National Security Agency and their acres of computers, knapsack crypto, to digital telephony encryption.
According to Zimmerman, "I even learned a few new things about PGP from Simson´s informative book." O´Reilly, of course, was quick to advertise this statement on the back of the book. I have to agree with Simson -- I learned a lot about PGP, from the failed Bass cryptoscheme of Zimmerman´s to his run-ins with the law.
The book is well put together, well written and certainly a credit to O´Reilly (just like almost every book that comes out of their presses). Most of this information can be found in other books, however (The Codebook is a very notable example).
If you use PGP on a regular basis, particularly the command line version, this is probably a better choice than other cryptography books. If PGP isn´t of that much interest to you then the title should turn you off right away -- there are more comprehensive general crypto books out there. |
