Today's digital environment demands that every application design consider security early on in the design process. To achieve this, developers must be fluent in basic cryptographic nomenclature and comprehend the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm or architecture before making a final design decision. One of Java's solutions to help bridge the gap between academic research and real-world problem solving comes in the form of an interface and programming tools that provide both a framework and the implementations for encryption, key generation and key agreement, and Message Authentication Code (MAC) algorithms. This set of Java Cryptography Extensions (JCE) has now been integrated into the Java 2 SDK, v. 1.4, making it a crucial tool for developers to understand and use.
In Java Cryptography Extensions: Practical Guide for Programmers, the JCE is explored using numerous code examples and instructional detail. It does not delve deeply into mathematical algorithms but instead gives the busy professional the tools to work with the JCE and the ability to write programs in Java right away. A supplemental open-source cryptography toolkit and the sample code is also available online to help those who are new to the JCE understand it through practical application. With this guide, programmers finally have a source that goes beyond the spec and gives them the details necessary for successful cryptography solutions in Java.
