Not required: an understanding of cryptography or security-related subjects

Here’s an interesting page. Microsoft is publishing a new API for cryptography for Windows Vista. It’s called Cryptography API: Next Generation (CNG) API and is the long-term replacement for the CryptoAPI. It allows developers to securely convey information over non-secure media. The sentence that struck as a bit of a surprise is “Although not required, an understanding of cryptography or security-related subjects is advised.”

Okay, so you’re going to use an API to give you various cryptographic en security features, but you don’t need to understand any of the underlying concepts. How’s that for encapsulation, eh?

Can anyone explain to me why all the 26 CNG primitive functions start with BCrypt?