// Alternatives
Alternatives to Serious Cryptography
Books in our catalog with overlapping topics and a similar reading level to Serious Cryptography. If Serious Cryptography is the wrong fit at intermediate level, start here.
01 · 2021
Real-World Cryptography
David Wong's hands-on tour of the cryptographic primitives, protocols and pitfalls that show up in actual production systems, with deliberate attention to TLS, Noise, modern AEAD, and post-quantum.
Intermediate5/5David Wong02 · 2010
Cryptography Engineering
A working engineer's introduction to cryptography that takes implementation pitfalls more seriously than most.
Intermediate4/5Niels Ferguson, Bruce Schneier, Tadayoshi Kohno03 · 2020
Security Engineering
Ross Anderson's comprehensive textbook on the design of secure systems, covering protocols, access control, side channels, economics of security, and policy.
Advanced5/5Ross Anderson04 · 2021
Crypto Dictionary
Jean-Philippe Aumasson's alphabetical, opinionated reference on cryptographic terms, primitives, attacks and folklore. Snack-format companion to Serious Cryptography.
Beginner4/5Jean-Philippe Aumasson05 · 2024
Extreme Privacy
Michael Bazzell's defender-side companion to OSINT Techniques: a step-by-step program for removing yourself from data brokers, public records, and the everyday surveillance economy without going off-grid.
Intermediate5/5Michael Bazzell06 · 2024
OSINT Techniques
Michael Bazzell's relentlessly updated technical manual for finding people, accounts, breach data, geolocation evidence, and online identifiers — the de facto reference of the modern OSINT field.
Intermediate5/5Michael Bazzell07 · 2021
Designing Secure Software
Loren Kohnfelder, the original PKI author, on how to weave security thinking through requirements, design, implementation and operations rather than bolt it on at the end.
Intermediate5/5Loren Kohnfelder08 · 2014
Threat Modeling
Adam Shostack's practitioner-oriented introduction to threat modeling: STRIDE, attack trees, and how to fit the practice into a real software-development lifecycle.
Intermediate5/5Adam Shostack09 · 2013
The Practice of Network Security Monitoring
Richard Bejtlich's NSM playbook: how to deploy collection sensors, validate that you actually see what you think you see, and build detection workflows around open-source tools.
Intermediate5/5Richard Bejtlich10 · 2012
Practical Malware Analysis
Still the gold standard textbook for static and dynamic malware analysis on Windows.
Intermediate5/5Michael Sikorski, Andrew Honig