ENGLISH / MAGYAR
Kövess
minket

Applied Cryptography

2018-2019/I.
Horváth Máté
Horváth Máté

Cryptography is a fundamental tool in securing information systems, but proper application of it is a non-trivial engineering problem. In this set of projects the students will get familiar with various cryptographic concepts and tools, and typically implement prototypes of cryptographic protocols. Currently, we have 2 specific topic in this area:

  • Proof of Concept Implementation of a Secure IoT Data Market: The concept of an IoT data market [1] aims to enable the better utilisation of the vast amount of data, collected by smart devices. To do so, such markets provides an opportunity to individuals to sell their data to so-called value-added service providers that have the know-how to turn raw data into useful insights and help e.g. optimization of different processes. The secure realization of a data market is challenging because it has to guarantee both the privacy of the involved data and the interests of the value-added service provider whose computational logic might be confidential. The task of a prospective student is to implement and benchmark cryptographic protocols that can be used in secure data markets where the goal of a value-added service provider is to compute basic statistics, and to prepare a proof of concept implementation of the market.
  • Digital Signatures in a Post-quantum World: While quantum computers are not yet realized, the beginning of a post-quantum area of computing is expected sooner or later [2]. As a direct sign of this expectation is the recent initiation of NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) to develop and standardize one or more additional public-key cryptographic algorithms [3]. In this project, we are interested in the future of digital signatures. The task of a prospective student is to review current digital signature schemes, including the submissions to NIST, which resist to quantum attacks (hash-based signatures, the opportunities of lattice- and code-based cryptography), investigate the applicability of the different approaches and one or two concrete schemes, possibly implement the evaluated schemes. Required skills: critical thinking, good command of English.

Familiarity with the basics of cryptography is an advantage but not required.
References:
[1] Horváth M., Buttyán L. Problem Domain Analysis of IoT-Driven Secure Data Markets. In: Euro-CYBERSEC 2018. CCIS, vol 821. Springer
[2] Chen, Lily, et al. Report on post-quantum cryptography. US Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2016.
[3] Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization


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