algorithm - a set of programmatic or mathematical steps used to solve a specific problem that consistently replicate the same result. Cryptographic algorithms have mathematical properties that typically enable some combination of confidentiality, integrity, and authentication.
cipher - an algorithm that obfuscates data using transposition, substitution, or some other means
ciphertext - the obfuscated result of encrypting a set of data with a cipher
decrypt - the act of using a cipher to de-obfuscate data returning it to its original form before it was encrypted
encrypt - the act of using a cipher to obfuscate data
key - a cryptographically random set of data that is required to encrypt plaintext or decrypt ciphertext with some ciphers
plaintext - a set of data that has yet to be encrypted using the cryptographic operation about to be performed
protocol - A protocol is a detailed procedure that is agreed upon by two or more parties that facilitates the parties communication. A cryptographic protocol can be comprised of cryptographic algorithms, key setup, random number generation and other methods needed to facilitate the protocol.
substitution - substituting an element of data for a value defined to correspond to the element in a table
transposition - swapping one element of data with another in the same set
[RSAFaq2]
RSA Security, Inc.
"RSA Laboratories Cryptography FAQ".
http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/faq/2-1.html.
[AESCite]
US NIST.
"The Advanced Encryption Standard".
http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/aes/index.html.
[SHAupdate]
US NIST
"Draft FIPS 180-2, Secure Hash Standard (SHS) is available for public comment and review".
http://csrc.nist.gov/encryption/tkhash.html.
[Dobbertin1996]
Dobbertin, Hans.
"Crytanalysis of MD5 Compress".
http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/users/bsy/dobbertin.ps
[RSAFaq4]
RSA Security, Inc.
"RSA Laboratories Cryptography FAQ".
http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/faq/2-1-7.html.
[Krawczyk1997]
Krawczyk, H. et al.
"RFC 2104 HMAC: Keyed Hashing for Message Authentication".
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2104.txt.
[Eastlake1994]
Eastlake, D. et al.
"RFC 1750: Randomness Recommendations for Security".
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1750.txt.
[Callas1996]
Callas, Jon.
"Using and Creating Cryptographic-Quality Random Numbers".
http://www.merrymeet.com/jon/usingrandom.html.
[Ellison1995]
Ellison, Carl.
"Cryptographic Random Numbers".
http://world.std.com/~cme/P1363/ranno.html.
[Gutmann2000]
Gutmann, Peter.
"Software Generation of Practically Strong Random Numbers".
http://www.cryptoapps.com/~peter/06_random.pdf.
[OpenSSLFAQRNG]
OpenSSL Maintainers .
"OpenSSL FAQ".
http://www.openssl.org/support/faq.html#USER1.
[Slacksite]
Unknown.
"Generating an SSL Certificate with Apache+mod_ssl".
http://www.slacksite.com/apache/certificate.html.
[Goldberg1996]
Goldberg, Ian and Wagner, David.
"Randomness and the Netscape Browser".
http://www.ddj.com/articles/1996/9601/9601h/9601h.htm.
[egd]
Warner, Bryan.
"Entropy Gathering Daemon (EGD)".
http://www.lothar.com/tech/crypto/.
[prngd]
Jänicke, Lutz.
"Pseduo Random Number Generator Daemon (EGD)".
http://www.aet.tu-cottbus.de/personen/jaenicke/postfix_tls/prngd.html.
[LinuxRandom]
Ts'o, Theodore.
"random, section 4 of on-line reference manuals".
[MaierAndi]
Maier, Andreas.
"Solaris /dev/random".
http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/~andi/.
[SUNWski]
Sun Microsystems.
"SUNWski Solaris Server Intranet Extension 1.0".
http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/~andi/SUNrand/SUNWski.txt.
[OpenBSDRandom]
OpenBSD Maintainers.
"random, section 4 of on-line reference manuals".
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi.
[IntelRNG]
Intel Corporation.
"Intel Random Number Generator".
http://developer.intel.com/design/security/rng/rng.htm.
[Garzik2000]
Garzik, Jeff and Rumpf, Philipp.
"Hardware driver for Intel i810 Random Number Generator (RNG)".
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gkernel/.
[EllisonW2001]
Ellison, Carl.
"Carl Ellison's Home Page".
http://world.std.com/~cme/.
[Wagner2001]
Wagner, David.
"Randomness for Crypto".
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daw/rnd/index.html.
[Gutmann2001]
Gutmann, Peter.
"Peter Gutmann's Home Page".
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/.
[Schneier2000]
Schneier, Bruce.
Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World.
New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN: 0-471-25311-1.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
[Iterata1999]
Iterata, Igor.
Properly Conforming to Suggestive Recommendations.
New York, NY: Department of Redundancy Department Publisher's Publishing, Inc. Company.
ISBN: 4-321-68421-0.
[RSACite]
RSA Security, Inc.
"RSA Laboratories Cryptography FAQ".
http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/faq/3-1-1.html.
Singh, Simon.
The Code Book.
New York, NY: Random House.
ISBN: 0-385-49532-3.
pp. 272-279, 387-389.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
Menezes, Alfred, et al.
Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
ISBN: 0-8493-8523-7.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
pp. 98-99, 285-291, 433-438.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
[3DESCite]
US DOC/NIST.
"FIPS 46-3 Data Encryption Standard (DES)".
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips46-3/fips46-3.pdf.
Menezes, Alfred, et al.
Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
ISBN: 0-8493-8523-7.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
pp. 273.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
Schneier, Bruce.
Applied Cryptography Second Edition: protocols, algorithms, and source code in C.
New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN: 0-471-11709-9.
pp. 265-301, 360-363.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
[BFCite]
Schneier, Bruce.
The Blowfish Encryption Algorithm
http://www.counterpane.com/blowfish.html.
Menezes, Alfred, et al.
Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
ISBN: 0-8493-8523-7.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
pp. 281.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
Schneier, Bruce.
Applied Cryptography Second Edition: protocols, algorithms, and source code in C.
New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN: 0-471-11709-9.
pp. 336-339.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
[RC4Cite]
RSA Data Security Labs.
"What is RC4 ?".
http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/faq/3-6-3.html.
Rivest, Ron.
"Links to other web pages on cryptography and security".
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/crypto-security.html#Algorithms.
[DSSCite]
US DOC/NIST.
"FIPS 186-2 Digital Signature Standard (DSS)".
Gaithersburg, MD.
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips186-2/fips186-2.pdf.
Menezes, Alfred, et al.
Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
ISBN: 0-8493-8523-7.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
pp. 452-454.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
Schneier, Bruce.
Applied Cryptography Second Edition: protocols, algorithms, and source code in C.
New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN: 0-471-11709-9.
pp. 483-494.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
[SHACite]
US DOC/NIST.
"FIPS 186-2 Secure Hash Standard (SHS)".
Gaithersburg, MD.
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips180-1/fip180-1.pdf.
Menezes, Alfred, et al.
Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
ISBN: 0-8493-8523-7.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
pp. 348.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
Schneier, Bruce.
Applied Cryptography Second Edition: protocols, algorithms, and source code in C.
New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN: 0-471-11709-9.
pp. 442-445.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
[MD5Cite]
Rivest, R.
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1321.txt
Boston, MA.
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1321.txt.
Menezes, Alfred, et al.
Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
ISBN: 0-8493-8523-7.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
pp. 347.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
Schneier, Bruce.
Applied Cryptography Second Edition: protocols, algorithms, and source code in C.
New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN: 0-471-11709-9.
pp. 436-441.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
[DHCite]
Diffie, W. and Hellman, M.
"New Directions in Cryptography".
http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~tdnguyen/classes/cs671/presentations/Arvind-NEWDIRS.pdf.
Menezes, Alfred, et al.
Handbook of Applied Cryptography.
ISBN: 0-8493-8523-7.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
pp. 515-524.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
Schneier, Bruce.
Applied Cryptography Second Edition: protocols, algorithms, and source code in C.
New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN: 0-471-11709-9.
pp. 513-515.
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.
[KeyLengthCite]
Blaze, Matt, et al.
"Minimal Key Lengths for Symmetric Ciphers to Provide Adequate Commercial Security".
http://www.counterpane.com/keylength.html.
Schneier, Bruce.
"Key Length and Security".
http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9910.html#KeyLengthandSecurity.
Lenstra, Arjen K. and Verheul, Eric R.
"Suggesting Key Sizes for Cryptosystems".
http://www.cryptosavvy.com/suggestions.htm.
The Code Book and Cryptography Decrypted (see below) are both written for lay persons who want to understand the high level concepts of cryptography. For those of you that wish to delve deeper, Applied Cryptography and Handbook of Applied Cryptography should keep you busy. The Dr. Dobbs CDROM referenced in the links above contains both books referenced in the previous sentence, in addition to other classics on cryptography. The CDROM contains lots of information if you don't mind not having the data in dead tree form.
Mel, H.X. and Baker, Doris M.
Cryptography Decrypted.
7-5. Boston, MA: Addison Wesley, 2000.
ISBN: 0-201-61647-5
Purchase from Amazon or Fatbrain.