ITR: Cryptography: from user needs to protocol design

密码学是一种强大的安全工具，但在应用中尚未充分发挥其潜力。该项目研究使密码学在多个层面上更容易使用的方法：更容易为协议设计者，软件应用程序和政策制定者。该项目自然分为三个领域，大致对应于上面的列表：-协议设计的形式化验证方法的研究。这些方法将帮助设计者确保协议满足密码学和复杂性理论社区所接受的健壮的安全标准。 - 通用密码原语的设计，其性能可以根据特定应用的需要进行调整。这包括分析与现代效率和安全措施有关的密码原语，例如，历史独立性、增量性、前向安全性以及以上各项的组合使用。- 分析个人用户和政策制定者的安全和隐私需求，并研究解决问题的创新方案。例如，该项目探讨了身份证的设计，在不侵犯用户隐私的情况下提供安全的身份识别。资讯保安对确保公众对资讯基建的信心至为重要，而密码学则是保障电脑保安的有力工具。然而，密码学目前并没有得到充分利用，而且经常被滥用。透过使密码学工具更易于使用和理解，该项目旨在促进更多和更好地使用密码技术。该项目还旨在促进关于适当使用信息技术的全国辩论，特别是探讨如何在不损害国家安全的情况下保护个人隐私。最后，该项目将有助于加密专家的教育，他们可以与非专业人士（如实施者和法律的专家）进行清晰的沟通。

Cryptography is a powerful security tool that has not reached its full potential in applications. This project investigates approaches to making cryptography easier to use at multiple levels: easier for the protocol designer, for the software applications, and the policy maker. The project is naturally divided into three areas, roughly corresponding to the above list: - The study of formal verification methods for protocol design. Thesemethods will help the designer to make sure that protocols meet the robust security standards accepted by the cryptographic and complexity theory communities. - The design of versatile cryptographic primitives whose performance can be tuned to the needs of specific applications. This includes the analysis of cryptographic primitives with respect to modern efficiency and security measures, e.g., history independence, incrementality, forward security, and combined uses of the above. - The analysis of the security and privacy desires of individual usersand policy makers, and the study of innovative solutions to their problems. For example, the project explores the design of identification cards that provide secure identification without violating the privacy of the users.Broad impact: Security is vital to ensure public confidence in the information infrastructure, and cryptography is a potent tool for computer security.Yet, cryptography is currently under-utilized and frequently misused.By making cryptographic tools easier to use and understand, the project aims to facilitate increased and better informed use of cryptography. The project also aims to contribute to the national debate on appropriate uses of information technology, and, in particular, explore ways to protect individual privacy without damaging national security. Finally, the project will contribute to the education of cryptographic specialists who can communicate clearly with non-specialists, such as implementers and legal experts.