CT-ISG: The Assumptions for Cryptography

虽然密码学的现代研究已经将计算机安全的很大一部分从一门艺术转变为一门科学，但最终所有当前密码协议(加密、数字签名等)的安全保证依靠猜想，例如分解大整数的困难是难以解决的，或者在某些“散列函数”中发现冲突。这些猜想是错误的可能性(就像最近对一些流行的散列函数所发现的那样)是对网络安全的真正威胁。该项目旨在通过最小化特定密码原语所需的假设(例如可以被视为“数字安全”的承诺方案)来减少这种威胁，并尝试将密码学建立在整个问题类别的难易程度的基础上。更广泛地说，该项目旨在使用计算复杂性理论中的技术来加强密码学和网络安全的基础。社会从该项目中受益，因为密码学在电子商务中发挥着使能作用。更强大的密码学基础有助于防止电子商务变得容易受到不可预见的攻击。该项目的进一步影响来自对研究生和本科生的培训，通过他们参加国际和平研究所教授的课程和通过他们直接参与研究。

While modern research in cryptography has transformed a significant portion of computer security from an art into a science, ultimately the security guarantees for all current cryptographic protocols (encryption, digital signatures, etc.) rely on conjectures, such as the intractability of factoring large integers is intractable or of finding collisions in certain "hash functions". The possibility that these conjectures are false (as was recently discovered for some popular hash functions) is a genuine threat to cybersecurity.This project aims to reduce this threat by minimizing the assumptions needed for specific cryptographic primitives (such as commitment schemes, which can be viewed as "digital safes"), and attempting to base cryptography on the hardness of an entire class of problems. More generally, the project aims to strengthen the foundations of cryptography and cybersecurity using techniques from computational complexity theory.Society benefits from this project because of the enabling role that cryptography plays in electronic commerce. Stronger foundations for cryptography help prevent electronic commerce from becoming vulnerable to unforeseen attack. Further impact of this project comes through the training of graduate and undergraduate students, both through their attendance in courses taught by the PI and through their direct involvement in the research.