Book excerpt: Group theory appears to be a promising source of hard computational problems for deploying new cryptographic constructions. This reference focuses on the specifics of using groups, including in particular non-Abelian groups, in the field of cryptography. It provides an introduction to cryptography with emphasis on the group theoretic perspective, making it one of the first books to use this approach. The authors provide the needed cryptographic and group theoretic concepts, full proofs of essential theorems, and formal security evaluations of the cryptographic schemes presented. They also provide references for further reading and exercises at the end of each chapter.