In this introductory textbook the author explains the key topics in cryptography. 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. For example, he uses the terminology of groups and finite fields so that the reader can understand both the latest academic research and "real-world" documents such as application programming interface descriptions and cryptographic standards. The text employs colour to distinguish between public and private information, and all chapters include summaries and suggestions for further reading. This is a suitable textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, mathematics and engineering, and for self-study by professionals in information security. While the appendix summarizes most of the basic algebra and notation required, it is assumed that the reader has a basic knowledge of discrete mathematics, probability, and elementary calculus.

In this introductory textbook the author explains the key topics in cryptography. 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. For example, he uses the terminology of groups and finite fields so that the reader can understand both the latest academic research and "real-world" documents such as application programming interface descriptions and cryptographic standards. The text employs colour to distinguish between public and private information, and all chapters include summaries and suggestions for further reading. This is a suitable textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, mathematics and engineering, and for self-study by professionals in information security. While the appendix summarizes most of the basic algebra and notation required, it is assumed that the reader has a basic knowledge of discrete mathematics, probability, and elementary calculus.

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."

These are the proceedings of Eurocrypt 2008, the 27th Annual IACR Eu- crypt Conference. The conference was sponsored by the International Asso- ation for Cryptologic Research (www.iacr.org), this year in cooperation with Tubitak (www.tubitak.gov.tr). The Eurocrypt 2008 Program Committee (PC) consisted of 28 members whose names are listed on the next page. There were 163 papers submitted to the conference and the PC chose 31 of them. Each paper was assigned to at least three PC members, who either handled it themselves or assigned it to an external referee. After the reviews were submitted, the committee deliberated both online for severalweeks and?nally ina face-to-facemeetingheldinBristol. Papers were refereed anonymously, with PC papers having a minimum of ?ve reviewers. All of our deliberations were aided by theWeb Submission and- viewSoftware written and maintainedby Shai Halevi. In addition to noti?cation of the decision of the committee, authors received reviews; the default for any report given to the committee was that it should be available to the authors as well.