> How does one become a cryptographer then? Basically: studying it in depth (especially the mathematics part). Focus on cryptanalysis for a while, and find som

> How does one become a cryptographer then? Basically: studying it in depth (especially the mathematics part). Focus on cryptanalysis for a while, and find some flaws in existing implementations. The moment you really start to fix those flaws, you probably know enough to implement a cryptosystem in a reasonably safe manner. Even then, there likely will be many flaws in your implementation. So, you need other cryptographers to review it, several sets of eyes looking for flaws. Oh, and don't forget to make sure someone reviews for side channel attacks. (and some other things that I am probably forgetting right now) In the end, the cryptographers that implement cryptosystems are a rare breed. These generally include people that are good at both the hard mathematics involved and the low-level programming knowledge that it requires to prevent timing attacks and the like, and even some hardware knowledge. Who am I to say this? I have studied information security with some focus on crypto, including cryptanalysis and implementation of cryptosystems. Followed some MSc-level courses on implementation specifically, would not touch implementing a cryptosystem myself for production.