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Besides number theory, what other areas should I study for crypto. I did my undergrad in Comp Sci so the crypto course didnt have much mathematical topics. But for a grad specilisation in crypto I need to get acquainted with the required mathematical skills.

Any sort of help is appreciated.

Regards Rahul

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See also math.stackexchange.com/questions/36906/…. –  lhf May 27 '13 at 16:07

3 Answers 3

See the book An Introduction to Mathematical Cryptography by Hoffstein, Pipher, and Silverman.

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Don't forget to have a go at probability theory and information theory. These two (with a big emphasis on the first) pop up all around modern cryptography as most security proofs deal with showing that certain events are very very unlikely.

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Besides number theory, you should also know some abstract algebra. A lot of modern cryptography is based on for example elliptic curves.

You could also check out quantum cryptography. This would require that you know some quantum mechanics.

Hope this helps.

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