IACR News
Here you can see all recent updates to the IACR webpage. These updates are also available:
29 March 2019
Aurélie Bauer, Eliane Jaulmes, Emmanuel Prouff, Jean-René Reinhard, Justine Wild
Léo Ducas, Steven Galbraith, Thomas Prest, Yang Yu
In this paper, we give techniques to implement Gaussian sampling over general lattices without using FPA. To this end, we revisit the approach of Peikert, using perturbation sampling. Peikert's approach uses the Cholesky decomposition $\mathbb{\Sigma} = \mathbb{A} \mathbb{A}^t$ of the target covariance matrix $\mathbb{\Sigma}$, giving rise to a square matrix $\mathbb{A}$ with real (not integer) entries. Our idea, in a nutshell, is to replace this decomposition by an integral one. While there is in general no integer solution if we restrict $\mathbb{A}$ to being a square matrix, we show that such a decomposition can be efficiently found by allowing $\mathbb{A}$ to be wider (say $n \times 9n$). This can be viewed as an extension of Lagrange's four-square theorem to matrices. In addition, we adapt our integral decomposition algorithm to the ring setting: for power-of-2 cyclotomics, we can exploit the tower of rings structure for improved complexity and compactness.
Yu Chen, Xuecheng Ma
Despite strong privacy is promising, it might be overkilled or even could be abused in some cases. In particular, anonymity seems contradict to accountability, which is a crucial property for scenarios requiring disputes resolving mechanism, e.g. e-commerce.
To address the above issues, we introduce accountability to blockchain-based confidential transaction system for the first time. We first formalize a general framework of confidential transaction system with accountability from digital signature, homomorphic public-key encryption and non-interactive zero-knowledge arguments, then present a surprisingly simple and efficient realization called PGC. To avoid using general-purpose zero-knowledge proofs (such as zk-SNARK and zk-STARK), we twist the ElGamal encryption as the underlying homomorphic PKE and develop ciphertext-refreshing approach. This not only enables us to prove transaction validity/correctness by using efficient Sigma protocols and zero-knowledge range proofs, but also makes PGC largely compatible with Bitcoin and Ethereum, which could be used as a drop-in to provide confidential enforcements with accountability.
Boyu Ni, Xiaoyang Dong
In this paper, we give more improved polynomial-time quantum distinguishers on Type-1 GFS in quantum chosen-plaintext attack (qCPA) setting and quantum chosen-ciphertext attack (qCCA) setting. In qCPA setting, we give new quantum polynomial-time distinguishers on $(3d-3)$-round Type-1 GFS with branches $d\geq3$, which gain $d-2$ more rounds than the previous distinguishers. Hence, we could get better key-recovery attacks, whose time complexities gain a factor of $2^{\frac{(d-2)n}{2}}$. In qCCA setting, we get $(3d-3)$-round quantum distinguishers on Type-1 GFS, which gain $d-1$ more rounds than the previous distinguishers.
In addition, we give some quantum attacks on CAST-256 block cipher. We find 12-round and 13-round polynomial-time quantum distinguishers in qCPA and qCCA settings, respectively, while the best previous one is only 7 rounds. Hence, we could derive quantum key-recovery attack on 19-round CAST-256. While the best previous quantum key-recovery attack is on 16 rounds. When comparing our quantum attacks with classical attacks, our result also reaches 16 rounds on CAST-256 with 128-bit key under a competitive complexity.
Tiancheng Xie, Jiaheng Zhang, Yupeng Zhang, Charalampos Papamanthou, Dawn Song
Marcus Brinkmann
Juan A. Garay, Aggelos Kiayias, Giorgos Panagiotakos
University of Warsaw
MIM UW is one of the strongest computer science faculties in Europe. It is known for talented students (e.g., two wins and 13 times in top ten at the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest) and strong research teams, especially in theoretical aspects of computer science like algorithms, logic and automata, cryptography (e.g., 8 ERC grants in these fields, 4 of them running at the moment). For an overview of research areas represented in the Faculty, see http://www.mimuw.edu.pl/en/dziedziny-badan
Requirements:
- PhD degree in computer science or mathematics achieved during the last 10 years
- Strong publication record in international computer science journals or conferences
- Teaching experience
- Mobility record (participation in conferences, research visits, postdoc positions, etc.)
The position is for 4 years, with the possibility of extending for an indefinite period of time after a positive result of employee evaluation. The position comes with teaching load of 210 hrs/year.
Deadline for applications: 25th April 2019.
More details, including application procedure can be found under the following link:
https://www.mimuw.edu.pl/rozne/konkursy-pliki/2019/assistant-professor-comp-systems-2019-04-25.pdf
For more information about the procedure, requirements, conditions, etc. please contact a vice-director of Institute of Informatics, Lukasz Kowalik (kowalik (at) mimuw.edu.pl).
Closing date for applications: 25 April 2019
Contact: Lukasz Kowalik (kowalik (at) mimuw.edu.pl)
More information: https://www.mimuw.edu.pl/rozne/konkursy-pliki/2019/assistant-professor-comp-systems-2019-04-25.pdf
University of Manchester, UK
Project Description
Since the privatisation of the energy market in the UK, the inefficiency of its structures have resulted in unaffordable energy for micro consumers such as households and SMEs. Similar market structures distributed worldwide have also experienced the same issue. A few contributing factors leading to this issue are complicated switching process between suppliers, current high-cost technical infrastructure for administration and billing purposes and fixed rate supply system. With the use of blockchain as an infrastructure, there is a significant opportunity to disrupt the current energy market with automation and integration of services, provide savings in the energy provision process and reduce energy bills for end users. However, little scientific information is available regarding the costs associated with running a blockchain-based energy market and the best methods for scaling up such a platform.
eChain is a blockchain-based energy trading platform developed by UrbanChain, which uses hyperledger as a building block. The embedded features of the platform are real-time switching, automated billing and administration, P2P trading between energy generators and consumers, and demand side management.
Funding note
The candidate must be a UK/EU national as required by the funding agency.
Person Specification
Candidates must hold a minimum of an upper Second Class UK Honours degree or international equivalent in a relevant science or engineering discipline.
Skills and Qualifications
- A passion for blockchain technology, preferably concerning the energy sector
- Enthusiasm for working with cloud services and virtual machines
- Capable of producing highly original work and an enquiring mind with well-developed analytical and investigative skills
- A track record in software and/or electronic engineering, distributed ledger systems and/or system security
Closing date for applications: 15 April 2019
Contact: Candidates are encouraged to send their CV, a transcript with a list of courses and grades, and a description of their research interests to Dr Mustafa A. Mustafa as soon as possible for informal discussion about their suitability.
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/mustafa.mustafa.html
More information: http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/projects/description/?projectid=20154
Cairns, Australia, 1 October - 4 October 2019
Submission deadline: 31 May 2019
Notification: 5 July 2019
27 March 2019
- Jonathan Katz, for broad contributions, especially in public-key encryption and cryptographic protocols, and for dedication to service and education.
- Kaoru Kurosawa, for seminal contributions spanning anonymity, e-voting, and public-key cryptography, and for service to the Japanese and international communities.
- Daniele Micciancio, for pioneering work on lattice-based cryptography and the complexity of lattice problems, and for service to the IACR.
- Vincent Rijmen, for co-designing AES, contributions to the design and cryptanalysis of symmetric primitives, and service to the IACR.
- Amit Sahai, for fundamental contributions, including to secure computation, zero knowledge, and functional encryption, and for service to the IACR.
- Xiaoyun Wang, for essential contributions to the cryptanalysis and design of hash functions, and for service to the IACR.
26 March 2019
Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
We offer a three-year position with salary according to the remuneration group E 12/13 TV-L (39,83 Wochenstunden). The position is based in Bochum, Germany and will involve international travel to conduct and present research.
The load of teaching will be calculated according to §3 of Lehrverpflichtungsverordnung (state of North Rhine-Westphalia).
If you are interested, send your complete application documents in one single pdf file (max. 10 MB) with subject line *Application for PhD* directly to Nils Fleischhacker. ( nils.fleischhacker (at) rub.de )
Required documents are:
- Letter of motivation
- Curriculum vitae (including a list of publications if appropriate)
- Master\'s certificate and transcript of records
At Ruhr-Universität Bochum, we wish to promote careers of women in areas in which they have been underrepresented, and we would therefore like to encourage female candidates to send us their applications. Applications by suitable candidates with severe disabilities and other applicants with equal legal status are likewise most welcome.
Closing date for applications: 14 April 2019
Contact: Nils Fleischhacker, nils.fleischhacker (at) rub.de
More information: https://goo.gl/FSxDbC
University of Birmingham
The main goal of this studentship is to develop optimized, side-channel protected hardware implementations of isogeny-based protocols.
The student will be integrated within the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Cyber Security and Privacy and they will collaborate with more experienced researchers on this research program. They will be supervised by Dr. Sujoy Sinha Roy, Dr. Christophe Petit and Dr. Flavio Garcia. All three are members of Birmingham’s Academic Center of Excellence in Cyber security.
Person specification:
2:1 Honours undergraduate degree and/or postgraduate degree with Distinction (or an international equivalent) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematical Engineering or closely related discipline. The ideal candidate for this position will be familiar with low-level programming, hardware architecture design and cryptography, but other candidates with a strong academic record will also be considered.
Funding Notes: The candidate must be a UK national as required by the funding agency.
Total stipend to student: £22,000 (year1), £22,500 (year2), £23,000 (year3), £11,750 (6 months of year4). The stipend is tax free. This is a research position with limited or no teaching requirements.
Application link: https://sits.bham.ac.uk/lpages/EPS003.htm
Closing date for applications: 15 May 2019
Contact: Candidates are encouraged to send their CV, a transcript with a list of courses and grades, and a description of their research interests to Sujoy Sinha Roy and Christophe Petit and Flavio Garcia as soon as possible for informal discussion about their suitability.
https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~sinharos/
https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~petitcz/
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~garciaf/
University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
The University of Kent is one of only 17 Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACEs-CSR) in the UK, recognised by UK government. SoCyETAL will grow interdisciplinary research in areas such as international conflict, cyber influence and behaviour, cybercrime, cyber law, and financial technology, just to name a few. In addition to research, SoCyETAL will offer a number of interdisciplinary MSc programmes.
Applications are invited from candidates in any research area that can complement or enhance the existing research strengths of the KirCCS and the Cyber Security research group at the School of Computing, especially in the socio-technical security theme. Successful candidates will be made members of both KirCCS and SoCyETAL. SoCyETAL will have a dedicated physical space allowing researchers from different schools and disciplines to work together, and there will be dedicated PhD studentships for members of SoCyETAL.
We are particularly interested in candidates who have worked with researchers in social science disciplines including but not limited to Psychology, Law, Sociology, Business, and Economics. Candidates with research experience in Artificial Intelligence are welcome, especially if that research goes beyond pure technical issues into topics such as human behaviour, ethics, law, transparency, trust, fairness, and policy.
For more details and to apply for the posts, please visit the further information URL.
Closing date for applications: 10 April 2019
Contact: For informal queries, please contact Prof Shujun Li (S.J.Li (at) kent.ac.uk, http://www.hooklee.com/) and Prof Richard Jones (R.E.Jones (at) kent.ac.uk, https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/rej/).
More information: https://jobs.kent.ac.uk/STM1002
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
NTU and HP have announced the creation of a new HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab located at NTU, representing an $84 million push towards industry transformation in the areas of digital manufacturing and 3D printing technologies.
Within this collaboration, we have several exciting research projects within HP Security Lab, based in Bristol, UK:
1. Malware and Attack Analysis
2. Security Analysis of Machine Learning
3. 3D Object Model Analysis
4. Image processing for Circuit Board analysis
There are multiple Postdoc positions available in each of the areas. The postdoc will work in the HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The position involves conducting basic research, developing tools, working as part of a large research team, traveling, and giving presentations. The working language is English.
Apart from specific requirement to the topic, general requirements for a candidate are:
- A PhD in Computer Science/Mathematics or related areas is required.
- Some of the positions (not all) will require a strong background in cybersecurity.
- Strong programming and algorithmic skills.
- An established research record.
Candidates must be experienced in one or more of the following areas:
- Malware and attack analysis
- Software testing and verification
- Machine Learning (Random Forests, Ensemble Learning, Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning and other algorithms)
- 3D Object Modelling (matching, recognition, classification, analysis and computer graphics)
- 2D Image Analysis and pattern recognition
The term is currently one to three years starting immediately. The salary is 5.5k to 10k SGD per month with up to 3 month performance bonus. (Singapore Tax is around 5%)
Closing date for applications: 31 July 2019
Contact: Prof. Yang Liu at yangliu AT ntu.edu.sg
More information: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/yangliu
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Interested applicants are encouraged to send their detailed CV and cover letter to Shivam Bhasin (sbhasin at ntu.edu.sg) and Prof. Thomas Peyrin (thomas.peyrin at ntu.edu.sg).
Deadline: end of April 2019 (but preferably before the 4th of April 2019)
Closing date for applications: 1 May 2019
Purdue University
The application must include a curriculum vitae, a short research statement, and names of (at least) two contacts who can provide a reference about the applicant and their work. The candidate should be able to demonstrate substantial expertise in cryptography/distributed systems illustrated in the form of publications at top crypto/security/systems venues. For full consideration, applications are expected by April 05, 2019. However, we shall accept applications until all the positions are filled. Applications may be submitted by email to crypto-postdoc (at) purdue.edu.
Closing date for applications: 5 April 2019
Contact:
Contact Email: crypto-postdoc (at) purdue.edu
Purdue Faculty Team
- Jeremiah Blocki
- Christina Garman
- Aniket Kate
- Hemanta K. Maji
Zurich, Switzerland, 21 October - 23 October 2019
Submission deadline: 24 May 2019
Notification: 23 July 2019
University College London
We seek candidates with expertise and experience in both machine learning and information security. We expect the Post-Doctoral Research Fellow to lead cutting-edge research in this area, and more specifically, produce and present academic publications in top-tier conferences/journals, liaise with academic and industrial partners, and work with other researchers in the field.
UCL is one of the top-rated research institutions in the world, and currently the top recipient of Horizon 2020 funding in Europe. As of 2018, 30 Nobel Laureates and 3 Fields Medalists were UCL affiliates. UCL’s Computer Science Department is recognized as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research by the National Cyber Security Centre. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) evaluation, UCL was ranked first in the UK for Computer Science: 61% of its research submission are rated as world-leading and 96% as internationally excellent. For more information about our group, please visit http://sec.cs.ucl.ac.uk.
This post is funded for 24 months in the first instance.
Closing date for applications: 30 May 2019
Contact: Emiliano De Cristofaro, Head of Information Security Research, jobs (at) emilianodc.com
More information: http://bit.ly/ucl-privacyml-postdoc
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
PhD applicants should have a bachelor/master degree in computer science or engineering, information security, mathematics, or a relevant area. Excellent analytical and mathematical skills are necessary, as well as good organization skills and the ability to work independently. A strong background in coding and software engineering is a great plus for successful applicants.
Short-term internship positions are available for undergraduate and postgraduate students with an interest in the above topics.
HKUST offers competitive stipends and a creative environment that is ideal for excellent research. Our CSE department was ranked 14th in the world in 2018 by QS World University Rankings and our graduates consistently staff world-class institutions.
Interested applicants please send your CV and a short research statement to Prof. Dimitrios Papadopoulos.
Closing date for applications: 30 April 2019
Contact: dipapado (at) cse.ust.hk