International Association
for Cryptologic Research

The CSEE/IS department of UMBC is seeking 4 or more PhD to work on security, cryptography (e.g., ORAM), distributed systems, cloud computing (OpenStack), permissioned blockchains (BFT), food safety, SDN, or high-performance computing. The candidates are expected to have a strong programming ability and a strong desire to work with real systems. UMBC is in a nice location nearby many funding agencies and industrial companies.

Our group has a strong background in building permissioned blockchains (BChain, ByzID, CBFT, CPBFT) and building OpenStack systems (Nova, Neutron, Swift, Keystone).

UMBC is ranked 70 in CS/IS according to US News, and places 7th in a new ranking of \"Most Innovative\" national universities. At UMBC, we have 6 HPC, have access to D-Wave 2X quantum, and the NSF CHMPR center which has more than 30 industry and government partners (e.g., IBM, Northrop Grumman, Lexis Nexis, Dwave Systems Inc, Seagate, Collab Med Tech, GE, Morgan Stanley, NIST/ ISL, NSA/Lab for Phys. Sci., NSA/Central Sec. Services, NASA/GSFC, DHS) and a big and energetic cybersecurity center.

CSEE application deadline is 1/1/2018, and IS deadline is 2/1/18. Please let us know if you could not make the deadlines.

Closing date for applications: 1 February 2018

Contact:

Haibin Zhang: hbzhang (at) umbc.edu

Sisi Duan: sduan (at) umbc.edu

The department of CA at Aarhus University has an open position as full professor in Cryptology and Security.

For more information, follow the link below and look for [Professor in Cryptography and Security 950389] in the table.

Closing date for applications: 5 January 2018

Contact: ivan (at) cs.au.dk

More information: http://scitech.au.com/om-science-and-technology/stillinger/videnskabelige-stillinger

The department of CS at Aarhus University has an opening for one or more positions on tenure-track or associate professor level in all areas of computer science, including of course cryptology and security in general.

For more information, follow link below and look for [Assistant Professor (tenure-track) or Associate Professor in Computer Science 934877] in the table.

Closing date for applications: 5 January 2018

Contact: Ivan Damgard, ivan (at) cs.au.dk

More information: http://scitech.au.com/om-science-and-technology/stillinger/videnskabelige-stillinger

L’Institut de Mathématiques de l’Université de Neuchâtel annonce la mise au concours de

Deux postes de maître-assistant(e) à 80%

Entrée en fonction : 1er août 2018

Durée d’engagement: 4 ans

Exigences légales : être titulaire d’un doctorat, depuis au plus 10 ans. (Une expérience post-doctorale, bien que souhaitée, n’est pas exigée).

Cahier des charges :

- enseignement en Bachelor et Master (en moyenne 3 heures/semaine). Non French speakers will be given one year to reach a level sufficient to teach in French.

- encadrement de thèses de Master en Mathématiques

- recherche intégrée dans une des six équipes de recherches de l’Institut : voir les thématiques sur

https://www.unine.ch/math/home/recherche.html

- participation à la vie de l’Institut (organisation de séminaires…)

Le dossier de candidature comprendra : un CV avec liste de publications, et un projet de recherches limité à 5 pages. Les candidatures seront adressées à Prof. Alain Valette, directeur de l’Institut : alain.valette (at) unine.ch . Délai de candidature : 31 décembre 2017. Les candidat(e)s feront également envoyer deux lettres de références à la même adresse, avant le 15 janvier 2018.

Closing date for applications: 31 December 2017

Contact: Alain Valette (institute director) alain.valette (at) unine.ch

More information: https://www.unine.ch/math/

A PhD student position with scholarship is available at the Department of Computer Science, University of York, UK, to work on Secure and Usable Human Verification of Machine-Assisted Cryptography.

The project aims to explore solutions with applications in various domains such as electronic voting systems (e.g. using direct recording electronic (DRE) machines) and end-to-end encrypted instant messaging protocols such as Signal (deployed widely, e.g. in WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Allo).

The project is expected to investigate solutions from both the security and usability perspectives, and therefore students with background in at least one, and interest in both areas of cryptography and human-computer interaction, are sought.

Scholarships are available for both UK/EU and non-UK/EU students (under two different schemes) and are decided through a competitive process within the department.

The project will be supervised jointly by Dr. Siamak F. Shahandashti and Prof. Helen Petrie, and will start in October 2018. Deadline for applications is 19 January 2018.

More information about the project, the scholarship schemes, and the application process is available through the link provided below. For any further enquiries please get in touch.

Closing date for applications: 19 January 2018

Contact: Dr. Siamak F. Shahandashti: siamak.shahandashti (at) york.ac.uk

More information: https://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~siamak/supervision.html

Applications are invited for a PhD position in the field of cryptography at the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, to be co-supervised by Dr. Vanesa Daza and Dr. Carla Ràfols. The topic of research are cryptographic protocols for blockchain technologies, with a special focus on Zero-Knowledge Proofs. The starting date will be around September 2018.

Only outstanding candidates which satisfy international mobility criteria will be considered (i.e. the applicant should not have resided or carried out their main activity in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date).

The contract will be for 3 years with a gross salary of €34,800, plus other advantages.

The candidate should hold or be about to receive a master\'s degree by September 2018 in computer science, mathematics or a related area. Specialization in cryptography (demonstrated by a relevant MSc) will be positively evaluated.

Interested candidates should send a motivation letter, a short CV, the grade transcripts of  undergraduate studies and master (if finished)  and two names of references at cryptophdapplications (at) upf.edu.

Closing date for applications: 15 January 2018

Contact: Carla Ràfols, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

The cryptography group (more precisely, the group of cryptographic protocols, led by Helger Lipmaa) at the Institute of Computer Science of the University of Tartu seeks a research fellow in cryptography. The position will be permanent, but initially, the salary is guaranteed for five years (up to the end of the year 2022). The person, once hired, will be expected to help the group leader to apply for additional grants. The teaching load will be minimal. In the case of an excellent candidate, an early promotion is possible.

The successful candidate must have a Ph.D. and a strong track record in cryptography, but there are no other formal requirements. The salary will depend on the experience and strength of the applicant. We expect research experience in cryptographic protocol design (including but not only zero knowledge, e-voting, privacy-preserving data mining and machine learning, blockchain, secure computation). Interests in various codes used in cryptographic contexts (e.g., non-malleable, locally decodable, locally recoverable, locally testable, batch, PIR, or just error-correction codes) are appreciated.

The group of Lipmaa currently hires 5 more researchers, and more people will be hired in the near future. The department also has a quantum cryptography group (led by Dominique Unruh).

For any inquiries or to apply for the position, submit a full research curriculum vitae (cv), names of two references, and a research statement to Prof Helger Lipmaa starting your email subject line with [Research fellow].

The call for expressions of interest will remain open end of January, but we encourage to contact us before January 15.

Closing date for applications: 26 January 2018

Contact: Helger Lipmaa, lead research fellow, helger.lipmaa (at) ut.ee

More information: https://crypto.cs.ut.ee/index.php/Main/2018researcher

Temasek Laboratories at National University of Singapore, Singapore is seeking highly motivated professionals in conducting research in the area of post-quantum cryptography.

Applicants are expected to have a PhD degree in Mathematics/Computer Science and a strong background in algebra and number theory in Bachelor degree or higher degree courses.

A preferred candidate is expected to be proficient in Magma or SAGE package, a team worker and able to conduct independent research.

Interested candidates kindly email their CV to Dr Chik How Tan tsltch (at) nus.edu.sg.

Closing date for applications: 28 February 2018

Contact: Dr Tan Chik How tsltch (at) nus.edu.sg

We are looking for hardworking and self-driven PhD students to work in the areas of applied cryptography beginning from Fall 2018. OSU offers a competitive salary with an excellent working environment, all within a close proximity of high-tech industry and natural beauties of Oregon. Portland area (closeby) is known as Silicon Forest, and harbors major tech and research companies (e.g., Intel, HP, Galois, Siemens, Google, etc.). The qualified candidate will have opportunities for research internship and joint-projects with lead-industrial companies. Potential topics include:

Trustworthy Unmanned Aerial Systems

• New cryptographic frameworks to protect aerial drones

• Cryptographic policy enforcement for lawful interception via trusted execution environments and OS security mechanisms

Trustworthy Machine Learning (TML)

• Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning

• Harnessing trusted-hardware and hardware-acceleration for TML

Breach-Resilient Cyber-Infrastructures:

• New searchable encryption and Oblivious RAM schemes

• Augmentation of privacy enhancing technologies with trusted execution environments

Secure and Reliable Internet of Things and Systems (IoTs)

• Post-Quantum public key infrastructure for IoT

• Light-weight cryptography for medical devices

The candidate should fulfill the following requirements:

• A BS degree in computer science, electrical engineering or mathematics with a high-GPA.

• Very good programming skills (e.g., C, C++), familiarity with OS/Systems.

• Good Academic Writing and Presentation Skills.

• MS degree in computer science, electrical engineering or mathematics is a big plus. Publications in security and privacy are highly desirable.

Please send (by e-mail) the following documents: (i) Transcripts, (ii) Curriculum vitae , (iii) Three reference letters, (iv) Research statement, (v) GRE and TOEFL/IELTS scores

Please see:

http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~yavuza/

Closing date for applications: 15 January 2018

Contact: Dr. Attila A. Yavuz

attila.yavuz (at) oregonstate.edu

SYmmetric and Lightweight cryptography Lab (SYLLAB) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, is seeking highly motivated candidates for 2 research fellow positions (from fresh post-docs to senior research fellows) in the areas of symmetric key cryptography and machine learning. The research team will be supported by a Temasek Laboratories funding from Singapore. Salaries are competitive and are determined according to the successful applicants accomplishments, experience and qualifications. Interested applicants should send their detailed CVs, cover letter and references to Prof. Thomas Peyrin (thomas.peyrin (at) ntu.edu.sg).

Candidates are expected to have a strong backgroung in symmetric-key cryptography and/or machine learning, with good experience in programming with C/C++ and/or Python.

Review of applications starts immediately and will continue until positions are filled (ideally, the positions would start early 2018).

Closing date for applications: 31 March 2018

Contact: Thomas Peyrin - thomas.peyrin (at) ntu.edu.sg

SYmmetric and Lightweight cryptography Lab (SYLLAB) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, is seeking highly motivated candidates for 2 Ph.D. student positions in the areas of symmetric key cryptography and machine learning. Interested applicants should send their detailed CVs, cover letter and references to Prof. Thomas Peyrin (thomas.peyrin (at) ntu.edu.sg) preferably as soon as possible and before end of March 2018 (the 4-year PhD scholarships are to start in August 2018).

Candidates are expected to have a strong backgroung in computer science and mathematics, with some experience in programming with C/C++ and/or Python. Experience with machine learning software libraries is a plus.

More information about graduate admissions at NTU can be found here: http://admissions.ntu.edu.sg/graduate/Pages/home.aspx

Closing date for applications: 31 March 2018

Contact: Thomas Peyrin - thomas.peyrin (at) ntu.edu.sg

Secure Systems group in University of Helsinki, Department of Computer Science, seeks Ph.D. students and Post-Docs to research optimisations of functional encryption schemes for hardware based implementations and to develop hardware (FPGA) designs for their efficient computation.

A candidate applying for a Ph.D. student position is expected to have completed a Master degree in computer science, electrical engineering or other relevant fields. Experience in cryptology, cryptographic engineering and/or hardware design are major advantages. Additionally, Post-Docs are expected to have finished their Ph.D. degrees by the beginning of the work contract and to have a good publication record in cryptography and/or hardware cryptographic engineering. Your host will be Dr. Kimmo Järvinen, Senior Researcher in Secure Systems group in Department of Computer Science.

The positions are part of Functional ENcryption TEChnology (FENTEC) which is a project within the Horizon 2020 Research Innovation Action that begins in January 2018 for a duration of 3 years. The project aims to advance the state of art in functional encryption and make the paradigm ready for a wide-spread integration in emerging technologies. The consortium consists of the academic partners Edinburg University, ENS Paris, Flensburg University, Helsinki University and KU Leuven as well as the industrial partners ATOS, Kudelski Group (former Nagravision), WALLIX and XLAB.

Please send your CV with a cover letter. Post-Docs are asked to add two letters of recommendation. The positions are vacant until they are filled.

Closing date for applications: 28 February 2018

Contact: Dr. Kimmo Järvinen (kimmo.u.jarvinen (at) helsinki.fi)

Grenoble Institute of Technology and LIG Laboratory invite applications for a PhD Student position in the area of measurements for cybersecurity and Domain Name System (DNS) abuse.

- Position: PhD Student Grenoble INP

- Contract: fixed-term 36 months

- Start date: ASAP

- Location: Grenoble, Rhône-Alpes, France

- Hosting institution: LIG laboratory, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble Institute of Technology

- Scientific advisors: Maciej Korczynski and Andrzej Duda @LIG/UGA

- Project partners: SIDN (.nl registry) and AFNIC (.fr registry)

- Application deadline: 31/12/2017

Job description

The candidate will join a research project about cybersecurity and domain name abuse. The goal of the project is to develop large-scale Internet measurement and classification methods in the fight against Internet-scale attacks, such as phishing, drive-by-downloads, and spam. The successful candidate will collect and study empirical data, and will work on real-world security problems that will help operators such as domain registries and hosting providers to effectively mitigate security incidents.

Skills & Expertise

The position requires strong competences in programming (Python, C/C++) and excellent written and oral communication skills in English. Research experience in the field of network security and data analytics is considered as a plus.

The candidate must have a master’s degree (or equivalence) in network or information security, computer science, telecommunication engineering or in a related study with excellent results. The candidate must have a high motivation for research, and enjoy working in an international team.

How to Apply

Applicants should send a detailed curriculum vitae along with a letter of application, transcripts for undergraduate and graduate studies to maciej.korczynski (at) univ-grenoble-alpes.fr. Email subject must start with [DNS abuse]. References or letters of recommendation are appreciated.

Closing date for applications: 31 December 2017

Contact: Maciej Korczynski, maciej.korczynski (at) univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

More information: http://drakkar.imag.fr/spip.php?article504

Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is a young university which was established in collaboration with MIT. iTrust is a Cyber Security Research Center with about 15 multi-discipline faculty members from SUTD. It has the world\'s best facilities in cyber-physical systems (CPS) including testbeds for Secure Water Treatment (SWaT), Water Distribution (WADI), Electric Power and Intelligent Control (EPIC), and IoT. (See more info at https://itrust.sutd.edu.sg/research/testbeds/.)

I am looking for PhD interns with interest in cyber-physical system security (IoT, water, power grid, transportation, and autonomous vehicle etc.), including the topics such as 1) Lightweight and resilient authentication of devices and data in CPS, 2) Advanced SCADA firewall to filter more sophisticated attacking packets in CPS, 3) AI-based threat analytics for detection of attacks to CPS, 4) Securing maritime navigation systems. The attachment will be at least 3 months. Allowance will be provided for local expenses.

Interested candidates please send your CV with a research statement to Prof. Jianying Zhou.

Contact: Prof. Jianying Zhou

Email:  jianying_zhou (at) sutd.edu.sg

Home: http://jianying.space/

Closing date for applications: 31 January 2018

Contact: jianying_zhou (at) sutd.edu.sg

More information: http://jianying.space/

Applications are invited for a PhD position in the field of cryptography at the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, to be co-supervised by Dr. Vanesa Daza and Dr. Carla Ràfols. Research in cryptographic protocols for blockchain technologies, with a special focus on Zero-Knowledge Proofs. The starting date will be around September 2017.

Only outstanding candidates which satisfy international mobility criteria will be considered (i.e. the applicant should not have resided or carried out their main activity in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date).

The contract will be for 3 years with a gross salary of €34,800, plus other advantages.

The candidate should hold or be about to receive a master\'s degree by September 2018 in computer science, mathematics or a related area. Specialization in cryptography (demonstrated by a relevant MSc) will be positively evaluated.

Further enquiries about the project and conditions should be sent to cryptophdapplications (at) upf.edu.

Closing date for applications: 15 January 2018

Contact: Carla Ràfols, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Responsibilities:

• Define security tests for backend, Smartphone & Connectivity

• Develop countermeasures for detected vulnerabilities

• Develop tools to demonstrate the efficiency of the security mechanisms

• Develop and refine the Security and Privacy concept for connected services between vehicle and backend services

• Implementation of novel Security & Privacy mechanisms

Requirements:

• University degree in computer science, electrical engineering or mathematics with a deep focus on security, privacy, cryptology, or similar

• In-­depth Experiences with projects related to cloud security, smartphone security and backend security

• Knowledge of Security Risk Analysis methods (e.g. STRIDE)

• Knowledge of Security Source Code Analysis methods

• Knowledge of Quantum cryptography is preferred

• An application with several years of experience in the field of Automotive Security and Privacy is preferred

• Good & open communication

• Mobility to collaborate creatively in international teams

Closing date for applications: 31 March 2018

More information: http://www.continental-jobs.com/index.php?ac=jobad&id=596247

Applications are invited for a Post-doctoral research fellow to undertake research into the application of advanced machine learning techniques for use in side channel analysis attacks, in partnership with Cryptography Research and Riscure, as part of the EPSRC-funded DeepSecurity project. This project is a core research project of the £5M UK Research Institute in Secure Hardware and Embedded Systems (RISE).

RISE, under the directorship of Professor Máire O’Neill, is one of four multi-institution UK Research Institutes in Cyber Security funded by NCSC and EPSRC. The vision for RISE is to create a global centre for research and innovation in hardware security with close engagement with leading industry partners and stakeholders. The aim is to bring together the hardware security community in the UK and build a strong network of national and international research partnerships. RISE involves four initial component projects that include DeepSecurity and others from the University of Cambridge, University of Bristol and University of Birmingham. An advisory board involving industry partners has been created to engage with the research and to inform future funding calls around the Institute’s research challenges.

RISE is being hosted by CSIT. In 2012 CSIT was recognised by NCSC as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research with this recognition renewed in 2017. CSIT has strong links to industry and over 20 industrial partners, large global companies and SMEs, have committed to supporting the centre through the provision of funding and market intelligence.

Applicants must have at least a 2:1 Honours Degree (or equivalent) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or closely related discipline and a PhD, or expect, within 6 months, to obtain a PhD, in a relevant subject. At least 3 years relevant research experience in side channel analysis and/or FPGA/ASIC/Embedded systems design is essential.

Closing date for applications: 19 December 2017

Contact: Professor Máire O\'Neill at m.oneill (at) ecit.qub.ac.uk

More information: https://hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=7550368poZ&WVID=6273090Lgx&LANG=USA

We are seeking applications Research Fellow to work with Prof. Mark Ryan, Dr Flavio Garcia and Dr David Oswald on the EPSRC project ‘User-controlled hardware security anchors: evaluation and designs’, part of the EPSRC/NCSC Research Institute in Hardware Security and Embedded Systems (RISE):

One of the main goals of this project is to promote and facilitate the adoption of TEE as the main trust anchor for our security architectures. We will perform a thorough evaluation of the security features of different TEE implementations to determine their suitability as trust anchors. We will address the limitations of users interacting directly with TEEs through analysing use cases and developing secure interfaces using auxiliary devices and dedicated features. We will investigate opportunities to leverage strong hardware-based security mechanisms to improve both the strength and usability of authentication. We will also build an architecture for designing protocols and user experiences that leverage these hardware security primitives to enhance the security, manageability, and usability of user authentication over existing approaches. The analysis and applications of our research findings will be demonstrated and implemented on suitable platforms including secure hardware, smart devices and integration with authentication tokens.

In addition to holding a first degree in area of specialism and normally, a higher degree (PhD) relevant to research area or equivalent qualifications, applicants should have expertise in one or more of the following: cryptographic protocols; side-channel and fault attacks; implementation of cryptographic protocols using hardware features.

The Security and Privacy Group in the School of Computer Science is recognised by NCSC/EPSRC as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research. The group is an expanding team of eleven academic staff researching all aspects of computing security and privacy.

Closing date for applications: 3 January 2018

Contact: Prof. Mark Ryan: m.d.ryan (at) cs.bham.ac.uk
Dr Flavio Garcia: F.Garcia (at) bham.ac.uk
Dr David Oswald: d.f.oswald (at) cs.bham.ac.uk

More information: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BFY368/research-fellow-in-cyber-security-hardware

The Department of Computer Science/Surrey Centre for Cyber Security at the University of Surrey seeks to recruit an outstanding post-doctoral researcher in the field of privacy-oriented cryptography for a full-time position (24 months, salary £30,688 to £31,604 per annum) by February 2017.

The post is part of the EPSRC-funded research project “TAPESTRY: Trust, Authentication and Privacy over a DeCentralised Social Registry”. Successful applicant will be working on the design and analysis of privacy-preserving cryptographic protocols under the supervision of Dr Mark Manulis and will benefit from the environment provided by the Surrey Centre for Cyber Security (SCCS, http://sccs.surrey.ac.uk/).

Applicants are expected to have core skills in the design and security analysis of privacy-oriented cryptographic protocols (e.g. zero-knowledge proofs, anonymous credentials, etc). Experience in implementation of cryptographic protocols is a plus. They should hold a PhD or be close to the completion of their PhD studies and be able to drive their own research direction.

Closing date for applications: 17 December 2017

Contact: Dr. Mark Manulis at m.manulis (at) surrey.ac.uk

More information: https://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=079116-R-R

Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is a young university established in collaboration with MIT. Security is one of its major focuses. SUTD hosts the iTrust and STE-SUTD centres for research in cyber security.

I am looking for highly motivated PhD students who are interested in conducting research in blockchain or network security.

I am also looking for postdocs interest in blockchain systems.

You can find more information at https://pszal.github.io/open_positions

Closing date for applications: 1 April 2018

Contact: Pawel Szalachowski

pawel (at) sutd.edu.sg

More information: https://pszal.github.io/open_positions