International Association
for Cryptologic Research

You can now submit your papers to the very first edition of the IACR Communications in Cryptology.

Submission deadline: Jan 8, 2024 at 11:59pm Anywhere on Earth (AoE).

The IACR strongly condemns the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israel. We are outraged and horrified by this dreadful assault on civilians: Israelis of all religions, ages, and backgrounds; tourists; and foreign workers. We stand in solidarity with the people of Israel.

Our heartfelt sympathy and support go out to our members everywhere who are affected by that attack, and to all those who are suffering its ongoing consequences.

Approved by the IACR board of directors, October 18, 2023

As an experiment to manage the problem of growing program committee sizes, the PC chairs of Crypto 2024 are soliciting nominations (including self-nominations) for program committee service. The bulk of the work will take place from mid-February to the first week of May. Each PC member will be expected to review approximately 15 papers.

Please submit nominations via this form by July 31: https://forms.gle/wwvx4SkAoooX5SEA9

During CRYPTO’22 in Santa Barbara, a Women in Cryptography Networking Reception was successfully held. The attendees discussed several gender-related points they would like to be addressed by the IACR community. A resume (in bullet form) can be found here (https://hackmd.io/@RUWdi86MSmCiqoMLxEzsKQ/S11cD-U1i).

As a result of this, a discord “Women in Cryptography” and a website (https://www.womenincryptography.com/) have been created.

We invite all people who identify as women to join the discord and the ongoing discussions there. To join, please send email with the subject line “Request to join WIC discord” to contact@womenincryptography.com

NIST has published NISTIR 8214C ipd: NIST First Call for Multi-Party Threshold Schemes (Initial Public Draft). The call has two categories: cat1, for NIST-specified primitives; and cat2, for primitives not specified by NIST.

The period of public comments is open till April 10, 2023. The participation of the cryptology community is essential for the success of this initiative.

Details here: https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/nistir/8214c/draft

Consider also joining the MPTC forum: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/threshold-cryptography/email-list

IACR Statement Condemning the Russian war in Ukraine
April 6, 2022

Statement from the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) Condemning the Russian war in Ukraine

The IACR strongly condemns the unprovoked and unjust war that Russia is waging in Ukraine. We are outraged by the suffering and loss of life that this brutal aggression is inflicting on the Ukrainian People.

While this war continues, the IACR will not hold or plan to hold any conference in Russia, nor will it be affiliated with conferences in Russia.

The IACR fully endorses the following joint statement by the National Academies of G7 States which was published on 2 March 2022:

"The unprovoked attack against Ukraine, a democratic and independent country, is a blatant violation of international law and of core values of humanity. The Russian invasion is an assault on the fundamental principles of freedom, democracy and self-determination, which provide the basis for academic freedom and opportunities for scientific exchange and cooperation.

In this dark hour, our thoughts and deepest sympathy are with the people of Ukraine. We are determined to support the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. We stand in solidarity with the scientific community and the scientists in Ukraine.

We acknowledge the Russian scientists and citizens who are ashamed of this attack and speak out against the war.

We call on the Russian leadership to immediately cease all military action against Ukraine and put an end to this war."

Approved by the IACR board of directors, April 6, 2022

Algorand Foundation invites proposals for the Algorand Centres of Excellence (ACE) programme to build and run multidisciplinary centers which advance research and support applied education in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

Proposals for three to five years are accepted from higher education institutions and non-profit research organizations anywhere in the world. The ACE programme is being launched with a budget of 100,000,000 ALGO for the next ten years.

See the ACE website for further details.

The NIST Multi-Party Threshold Cryptography project has an open call (2021a), till September 13, 2021, for feedback on selected topics of criteria for multi-party threshold schemes.

Details here: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/threshold-cryptography

Consider also joining the TC forum: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/threshold-cryptography/email-list

Dear Cryptographers,

Here you can find a compilation of mentoring videos with Q&A's on such questions as:

• How to prepare a good talk?
• Was there a time when you doubted yourself?
• How do you find a research topic?
• And many many more questions, all answered by people who have been through it before you, there will be many familiar faces.

The organizers:

• Peihan Miao
• Tal Rabin
• Xiao Wang