New Directions in Public-Key Cryptography

公钥密码术是保护互联网和其他通信渠道上的通信安全的关键技术。目前广泛使用的两种公钥技术是RSA和椭圆曲线密码(ECC)。自1994年以来，人们就已经知道，这两种技术完全不能抵御能够利用量子力学效应的计算机的攻击。然而，尽管世界各地都在加紧努力，但是否真的能建造这样的大规模量子计算机仍是个未知数。尽管如此，已经取得了许多进展，一些研究人员对建造大规模量子计算机的时间表做出了一些乐观的预测。在一定程度上受到这些预测的推动，政府和行业对能够抵御量子计算机攻击的公钥加密技术的需求正在增长。我的研究目标是为这些量子安全公钥密码技术的开发、分析、实现、标准化和商业化做出贡献。*我还将继续开展两个正在进行的长期研究项目。第一个是对所谓的基于配对的协议的安全性、效率和功能性的研究。自2000年以来，这些协议一直是密码学研究的主要主题。然而，在过去的三年里，发现了几种强大的攻击，这需要重新评估它们的安全性和效率。第二个正在进行的长期研究计划旨在更深入地了解简化论安全证明实际上为密码协议提供的具体安全保证，包括被设计为量子安全的协议。*拟议的研究本质上是多学科的，借鉴了数学、计算机科学和工程学的学科。从事研究项目的研究生将为进入学术专业和安全行业做好充分准备，并为确保互联网量子安全做出贡献。**

Public-key cryptography is a critical technology for securing communications over the internet and other communications channels. The two public-key technologies in widespread use today are RSA and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). It has been known since 1994 that both these technologies are completely insecure against attacks by computers that are capable of exploiting quantum mechanical effects. However, despite intensive efforts around the world, it is still not known whether such large-scale quantum computers can actually be built.******Nonetheless, many advances have been made and some researchers are making somewhat optimistic predictions of the timeline for building large-scale quantum computers. Motivated in part by these predictions, the demand by governments and industry for public-key cryptographic technologies that withstand attacks by quantum computers is growing. The goal of my research is to contribute to the development, analysis, implementation, standardization and commercialization of these quantum-safe public-key cryptographic technologies. *** ***I will also continue working on two ongoing long-term research programs. The first is the study of the security, efficiency and functionality of so-called pairing-based protocols. These protocols have been a major theme in cryptographic research since 2000. However, in the past three years several powerful attacks have been discovered which calls for a reassessment of their security and efficiency. The second ongoing long-term research program aims to get a deeper understanding of the concrete security guarantees actually provided by reductionist security proofs for cryptographic protocols, including protocols that have been designed to be quantum safe. ******The proposed research is inherently multidisciplinary in nature drawing from the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, and engineering. Graduate students who work on the research programs will be well prepared to enter the academic profession and the security industry and contribute towards making the internet quantum safe.**