IACR News
Here you can see all recent updates to the IACR webpage. These updates are also available:
23 July 2017
Marko Balogh, Edward Eaton, Fang Song
Specifically, let $D$ be a min-entropy $k$ distribution on a set $Y$ of size $N$. Let $f: X\to Y$ be a function whose output $f(x)$ is drawn according to $D$ for each $x \in X$ independently. We show that $\Omega(2^{k/3})$ quantum queries are necessary to find a collision in $f$, improving the previous bound $\Omega(2^{k/9})$. In fact we show a stronger lower bound $2^{k/2}$ in some special case. For all cases, we also describe explicit quantum algorithms that find a collision with a number of queries matching the corresponding lower bounds.
21 July 2017
Bergen, Norway, 14 June - 16 June 2018
Submission deadline: 1 April 2018
Notification: 11 May 2018
Loen, Norway, 17 June - 22 June 2018
Submission deadline: 1 April 2018
Notification: 7 April 2018
Newcastle University, UK
You will work on the project “Practical Data-intensive Secure Computation: a Data Structural Approach”. This is a project funded by the EPSRC. The aim of the project is to investigate how data structures can be used as an efficiency and scalability booster in the context of secure computation. The project has a particular emphasis on putting theory into practice. The project will investigate both data structures and cryptography.
You will design novel cryptographic data structures and associated protocols for efficient secure computation, as well as apply them in domains such as cloud computing and data mining in order to solve real-world security/privacy problems. Other responsibilities include: writing papers, presenting work at international conferences, and contributing to an open source software package. There will be opportunities to collaborate with industrial research labs and other leading universities.
The candidate must have:
* a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant area;
* a strong background in cryptography/security;
* good programming skills (C++/Java, parallel/GPU computing experience is a plus).
* good communication and time management skills.
Experience/knowledge in one or more of the following areas would be desirable but not essential: computer networks, operating systems, databases, statistics and data mining.
The post is available from January 2018, fixed term for 2 years and is full time. The post is based in the Security & Resilient Systems (SRS) Group within the School of Computing Science. The School is one of the Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR) in the UK. In the latest 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment, the School ranked 9th overall and 1st for Research Impact among computer science departments in the UK.
Closing date for applications: 16 August 2017
Contact: Dr Changyu Dong (changyu.dong AT ncl.ac.uk)
More information: http://bit.ly/2tG6XJr
18 July 2017
Jessica Covington, Megan Golbek, Mike Rosulek
Ren Zhang, Bart Preneel
Dongxi Liu, Nan Li, Jongkil Kim, Surya Nepal
The security of our scheme is based on the Learning With Secretly Scaled Errors in Dense Lattice (referred to as Compact-LWE) problem. We prove the hardness of Compact-LWE by reducing Learning With Errors (LWE) to Compact-LWE. However, unlike LWE, even if the closest vector problem (CVP) in lattices can be solved, Compact-LWE is still hard, due to the high density of lattices constructed from Compact-LWE samples and the relatively longer error vectors. By using a lattice-based attack tool, we verify that the attacks, which are successful on LWE instantly, cannot succeed on Compact-LWE, even for a small dimension parameter like $n=13$, hence allowing small dimensions for short ciphertexts.
On the Contiki operating system for IoT, we have implemented our scheme, with which a leveled Needham-Schroeder-Lowe public key authentication protocol is implemented. On a small IoT device with 8MHZ MSP430 16-bit processor and 10KB RAM, our experiment shows that our scheme can complete 50 encryptions and 500 decryptions per second at a security level above 128 bits, with a public key of 2368 bits, generating 176-bit ciphertexts for 16-bit messages. With two small IoT devices communicating over IEEE 802.15.4 and 6LoWPAN, the total time of completing an authentication varies from 640ms (the 1st authentication level) to 8373ms (the 16th authentication level), in which the execution of our encryption scheme takes only a very small faction from 46ms to 445ms.
Yuncong Zhang, Yu Long, Zhen Liu, Zhiqiang Liu, Dawu Gu
Ruiyu Zhu, Yan Huang
Alexandros Zacharakis, Panagiotis Grontas, Aris Pagourtzis
Alexandre de Castro
Ming-Shing Chen, Andreas Hülsing, Joost Rijneveld, Simona Samardjiska, Peter Schwabe
Based on a detailed security analysis, we provide concrete parameters for SOFIA that achieve 128 bit post-quantum security. The result is SOFIA-4-128 with parameters that are carefully optimized to minimize signature size and maximize performance. SOFIA-4-128 comes with an implementation targeting recent Intel processors with the AVX2 vector-instruction set; the implementation is fully protected against timing attacks.
Nils L\"{o}ken
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA, 9 April - 11 April 2018
Submission deadline: 18 November 2017
Notification: 10 January 2018
WOLLONGONG, Australia, 2 July - 4 July 2018
Submission deadline: 25 February 2018
Notification: 8 April 2018
Orlando, FL, USA, 6 November - 10 November 2017
Submission deadline: 27 July 2017
Notification: 27 August 2017
15 July 2017
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
I am looking for highly motivated PhD students who are interested in conducting research in at least one of the following fields:
- network and systems security (Internet security, SSL/TLS, PKI, SDN, ...)
- FinTech security (blockchain, cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, ...)
- security of cyber-physical systems (IoT, critical infrastructures, ...)
Candidates should have an excellent background (BSc/MSc degree) in computer science (or related), ability to work on inter-disciplinary research projects, good design and programming skills, and a strong interest in at least one of the listed fields.
The positions are fully funded up to 4 years with a very competitive scholarship. More information about the PhD program is available at https://istd.sutd.edu.sg/phd/phd-overview/.
Interested candidates should send a CV and a research statement to Pawel Szalachowski psz (at) inf.ethz.ch
Closing date for applications: 15 September 2017
University of Kent, UK
Suggested research topics include, but are not limited to the following:
- Internet of Things Security
- Human Aspects of Security
- Ransomware
- Tools for Vulnerability Analysis
Applicants should be a UK or EU national. Applicants should have a 2:1 in an undergraduate degree as a minimum. Masters or equivalent professional or research experience with computer security, computer networks or interdisciplinary collaboration is an advantage. Successful applicants will be supervised within the Security Research Group.
Closing date for applications: 21 July 2017
Contact: Budi Arief, b.arief (at) kent.ac.uk
More information: https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/research/studyingforaphd/phd-cyber-2017.html