Best way to study for Cryptology

seuss_ssues

I recently began studying for the sec+ exam and im finding it difficult to study for the cryptology portion of the exam. Basically ive resorted to just reading the chapters i have about crypto over and over again and ive started constructing tables with the names of the algorithem and its bit strength, etc....

For all you crypto pros or sec+ certified people out there whats the best way to learn and study for the crypto portion? Are there any resources that you would like to highly recommend?

Webmaster

As with most studies in IT, best thing to do is use it. There are several more useful applications (i.e. try hooking up PGP to your email client and try using the available encryption standards). Though it's possible to learn and memorize the encryption standards and their characteristics 'just' by reading about it, you will likely forget them soon after the exam, if you don't apply the knowledge. Understanding the different encryption types (symmetric, asymetric, hashing) and the security issues they address (non-repudiation, integrity, confidentiality and authentication) are more important for the Sec+ exam than knowing the details for each standard (good to know key size as well though). Apart from the cryptography related topics in other domains of the exam objectives of course.

seuss_ssues

Thanks for the tip, i guess im trying to dig too deep. Memorizing all bit strengths, how many cycles each is ran, and so on.

keatron

Johan is exactly right. And I don't think he is trying to tell you not to learn the bit strenghts (because I'm almost certain I remember a question or two concerning that ). He is saying practice using it so you get the concepts down. Then after you understand it, you can focus on the details.