IACR News
Here you can see all recent updates to the IACR webpage. These updates are also available:
14 November 2022
Chanki Kim, Young-Sik Kim, Jong-Seon No
Peter Gaži, Ling Ren, Alexander Russell
This article develops explicit, rigorous settlement bounds for proof-of-stake longest-chain protocols, placing them on equal footing with their proof-of-work counterparts. Our techniques apply with some adaptations also to the proof-of-work setting where they provide improvements to the state-of-the-art settlement bounds for proof-of-work protocols.
Lione, Francia, 22 April - 23 April 2023
Submission deadline: 1 March 2023
Notification: 17 April 2023
Sousse, Tunisia, 19 July - 21 July 2023
Submission deadline: 26 February 2023
Paris cedex 12, France, 23 April - 28 April 2023
Submission deadline: 30 November 2022
Notification: 15 January 2023
University of Washington Tacoma
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Questions related to this position are to be directed to the search committee chair, Dr. Wes J. Lloyd, at wlloyd@uw.edu.
More information: http://apply.interfolio.com/116931
University College Cork, Ireland
Two doctoral positions in cryptography and privacy are open in the Security Group at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. Both positions are fully funded through research grants.
The first PhD will investigate adaptive privacy-preservation in IoT, and is funded by a Science Foundation Ireland grant (part of the CONNECT Centre). Research work will focus on local differential privacy and homomorphic encryption in IoT settings.
The second PhD will investigate anonymity and privacy of health data, and how they can be securely shared across different European health system. The position is funded by the EU Horizon Europe SECURED project. Research will focus on statistical re-identification attacks on anonymous health datasets. It will also explore privacy-preserving synthetic data generation.
Candidates should have a background/strong interest in security and privacy, as well as a good grasp of mathematics. Previous experience in cryptography is an asset, but is not required. Applicants should hold a good honours undergraduate or Masters degree in computer science, computer engineering, mathematics, or other relevant subject.
The successful applicant will receive a tax-free stipend of €18,500 per annum for up to four years, and tuition fees will be covered by the grant. The Government of Ireland is currently reviewing PhD stipends, and it is likely that the stipend will increase to match inflation.
A research and travel budget is also available to present at international conferences, purchase equipment etc.
The PhDs will work under the supervision of Dr. Paolo Palmieri (and Dr. Hazel Murray, MTU, in the first project). They will join the thriving Security Group at UCC, where several other PhDs and PostDocs are carrying out related research, and will have the opportunity to collaborate with the group extensive network of international collaborations.
Deadline: November 22, but early applications are encouraged
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Please submit your application using the web form at the link above. Please include: a cover letter; an up to date CV; and university transcripts.
E-mail applications will not be considered, but informal inquiries are welcome, and can be sent to Dr. Paolo Palmieri at p.palmieri@cs.ucc.ie
More information: https://ucc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dmVI6vyPTRwgs2G
Eindhoven Technical University (TU/e)
Possible topics fall into the field of provable security with a focus on the construction of efficient cryptographic building blocks and protocols, including
- (post-quantum) secure key exchange and messaging protocols and
- (post-quantum) secure digital signatures and public key encryption in realistic security models
- impossibility results/lower bounds for provably secure constructions.
Requirements:
- a Master's degree (or equivalent) with excellent grades in computer science, mathematics, or IT security.
- strong mathematical and/or algorithmic/theoretical CS background.
- good knowledge of cryptography and provable security.
- good written and verbal communication skills in English (Dutch is not required).
To apply, prepare a single PDF file that includes a CV with a course list and grades. The application deadline is December 15th, 2022.
Applications and questions can be directed to s.schage@tue.nl.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Sven Schäge
More information: https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/mathematics/discrete-mathematics/coding-theory-and-cryptology/
University of York, UK
The Department of Computer Science at the University of York has several PhD studentships available for exceptional Home (UK & Ireland) and Overseas students through the Doctoral Centre for Safe, Ethical and Secure Computing (SEtS).
The Cyber Security and Privacy Research Group at the Department calls for students who are interested in pursuing a PhD in the following topics:
- Security of New and Emerging Networks: including security of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and networks, security and safety in robotics and autonomous systems, security and safety of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and security of underwater networks and communications,
- Usable Security and Privacy: Web measurement to analyse and combat web tracking, developing privacy-enhancing technologies. usable security and privacy, and human factors in cyber security and privacy,
- Applied Cryptography: Design and analysis of provably-secure cryptographic schemes and protocols, especially those that preserve or enhance privacy, and including but not limited to automated formal analysis and mechanisation of proofs of security protocols,
- Malware Analysis and Detection: including different types of malware, such as ransomware and spyware, malware targeting mobile platforms (e.g. Android) or industrial control systems and critical infrastructure,
- Machine Learning for IoT Security: Machine learning techniques for IoT behavioural fingerprinting and attack detection for network security, and
- Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning: Edge based machine learning systems such as federated learning, and how to quantify, control, and manage privacy in such systems.
The available projects are supervised by a combination of faculty members including Dr. Roberto Metere, Dr. Siamak F. Shahandashti, Dr. Vasileios Vasilakis, Dr. Yuchen Zhao, and Dr. Poonam Yadav.
For more information please visit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VtrNtFG1zy54o0BzymHj56gY--YEw2ch3EG18gnb3Lc
Closing date for applications:
Contact: sets-csp-group@york.ac.uk
More information: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VtrNtFG1zy54o0BzymHj56gY--YEw2ch3EG18gnb3Lc
University of York, UK
The Department of Computer Science is a research-intensive department made up of over 70 academics delivering on-campus programmes to more than 800 students and online courses to over 1500 students. Our vision is to be internationally leading on education and research into engineering safe, ethical and secure computational systems.
The Department of Computer Science is recruiting up to six lecturers to support the development and delivery of our degree programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. This would include the ability to teach across our general range of subjects as well as more specialist modules in their own research area. We are particularly seeking candidates who enhance our existing research groups. Candidates must be able to supervise projects in one or more of the following key areas: Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis. We would consider candidates with non-traditional academic backgrounds where they have significant experience of working with, or in, a safety-critical industry.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: For informal enquiries: please contact Prof. Iain Bate at iain.bate@york.ac.uk.
More information: https://jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/lecturers-505454.html
Monash University, Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity; Melbourne, Australia
The post-quantum cryptography research group at the Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia, has Ph.D. student scholarship openings for research projects funded by our Algorand Centre of Excellence ACE-SIP Program, including in particular the following areas:
1. Post-quantum cryptographic primitives and their practical applications in blockchain protocols.
2. Post-quantum Zero Knowledge Proof and SNARK protocols and their applications for privacy preserving blockchain transactions and smart contracts.
Students will have the opportunity to work in an excellent research environment and collaborate with experts in cryptography and blockchain systems, and with Algorand industry partners.
Monash University is among the leading universities in Australia and is located in Melbourne, ranked as Australia's most liveable city and among the most liveable cities in the world.
Applicants should have (or expected to complete in the next 12 months) a Masters or Honours equivalent qualification with a research thesis, with excellent grades in mathematics, theoretical computer science, cryptography, or closely related areas. They should have excellent English verbal and written communication skills. Programming experience and skills, especially in Sagemath/python/Magma and/or C/C++, are also highly desirable.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: To apply, email ron.steinfeld@monash.edu by 30 Nov 2022 with the subject “Algorand ACE PQC PhD Application” and attach a single pdf with cover letter stating research interests, CV (including qualifications with GPA grades, reference contact details), and ugrad and pgrad transcripts.
More information: http://ace-sip.org/
North Carolina State University
To apply for the position, please send the following to aaysu@ncsu.edu :
1) Your detailed CV.
2) Your relevant publications (or pending papers).
Applicants with MS and industry experience will be favored. The projects cover full tuition fee, benefits (including health insurance), and the typical annual stipend in my group is $30k-35k – exceptions can be made for outstanding applicants.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Dr. Aydin Aysu (aaysu@ncsu.edu)
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences
Closing date for applications:
Contact: For questions contact Esther Hänggi; applications via the link in the main text
University of Wuppertal, Germany
We are looking for new team members with a strong background in cryptography, theoretical computer science, or mathematics and a very strong interest in topics such as (post-quantum secure) cryptographic protocols, concrete security of real-world cryptosystems, and the possibility and impossibility of formal security proofs for practical cryptosystems.
We offer positions in an active research group with a strong research orientation. All positions are fully funded and equipped with a competitive salary (100% E13), and will remain open until filled. The starting date can be arranged flexibly, in the period from spring to summer 2023.
The city of Wuppertal is centrally located and offers a wide range of attracttions at affordable living costs. Cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Essen and the Ruhr area can be reached in under 30 minutes by public transportation. Wuppertal was listed as one of the 20 best places to visit by CNN Travel in 2020 (https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/places-to-visit-2020/index.html).
Please contact Tibor Jager or the team members for further information on the positions, the group, or the environment.
Closing date for applications:
Contact: Tibor Jager
More information: https://itsc.uni-wuppertal.de/en/
11 November 2022
Helger Lipmaa, Roberto Parisella
Gongxian Zeng, Junzuo Lai, Zhengan Huang, Yu Wang, Zhiming Zheng
In this paper, we mainly focus on PoK protocols for $k$-conjunctive normal form ($k$-CNF) relations, which have $n$ statements and can be expressed as follows: (i) $k$ statements constitute a clause via ``OR'' operations, and (ii) the relation consists of multiple clauses via ``AND'' operations. We propose an alternative Sigma protocol (called DAG-$\Sigma$ protocol) for $k$-CNF relations (in the discrete logarithm setting), by converting these relations to directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). Our DAG-$\Sigma$ protocol achieves less communication cost and smaller computational overhead compared with Cramer et al.'s general method.
Gennaro Avitabile, Vincenzo Botta, Dario Fiore
In this paper, we first point out that even if anonymous count me in was suggested as an application of ETRS, the anonymity notion proposed in the previous work is insufficient in many application scenarios. Indeed, the existing notion guarantees anonymity only against adversaries who just see the last signature, and are not allowed to access the ''full evolution" of an ETRS. This is in stark contrast with applications where partial signatures are posted in a public bulletin board. We therefore propose stronger anonymity definitions and construct a new ETRS that satisfies such definitions. Interestingly, while satisfying stronger anonymity properties, our ETRS asymptotically improves on the two ETRS presented in prior work [PKC 2022] in terms of both time complexity and signature size. Our ETRS relies on extendable non-interactive witness-indistinguishable proof of knowledge (ENIWI PoK), a novel technical tool that we formalize and construct, and that may be of independent interest. We build our constructions from pairing groups under the SXDH assumption.