Re: Book on Pre-MATH for cryptography and cryptanalysis.

If my knowledge of mathamatics only extends to High school grade, what areas of Math
would I need to know before I could read and understand works on cryptography by such
authors as F. Bauer, Koblitz ro Applied Cryptography by B Schneier ?

You don't need calculus or topology, but you do need abstract algebra.
Unfortunately, nearly all algebra texts assume you want to become a
research mathematician, and thus are tougher than needed if all you
want is to understand crypto papers.

If you are content with understanding RSA and DSA, you don't need
abstract algebra. The number theory is a couple of hundred years old,
and I recommend "Number Theory and its History" by Ore. It's a lovely
book from the 40s, and there is a cheap Dover reprint.

If you want to read papers, Koblitz, etc., as Gwyn says you'll need
more. I believe that the best two introductory books for the algebra
(galois theory, etc.) are: "A Survey of Modern Algebra" by Birkhoff
and MacLane, and "Topics in Algebra" by Herstein. I recently lent
them to someone who was serious about learning this stuff. Two years
later, he gave them back, not having got beyond flicking through the
pages. The lesson here is that while it is theoretically possible to
study this stuff on your own, it's hard work. I recommend that you
enrol in some courses. What do you want to do: Design your own
algorithms? Understand and analyze crypto algorithms for the inherent
interest? Build security tools or products?

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