Privacy and authentication: An introduction to cryptography
Whitfield Diffie, Martin E. Hellman · Proceedings of the IEEE · 1979
This paper presents a tutorial introduction to contemporary cryptography. The basic information theoretic and computational properties of classical and modern cryptographic systems are presented, followed by cryptanalytic examination of several important systems and an examination of the application of cryptography to the security of timesharing systems and computer networks. The paper concludes with a guide to the cryptographic literature.