The Future-Proof Cryptography Unit is dedicated to advancing the field of cryptography and developing secure solutions for the digital age. Led by Prof. Najwa Aaraj and a team of experts in various cryptographic techniques, the group focuses on the following key areas and how they are affected by the plausibility of quantum computers:
Multi-Party Computation (MPC): The group broadly explores the theory and application of MPC, which allows multiple parties to jointly compute a function while keeping their inputs private. They investigate efficient protocols, security guarantees, and practical improvements of MPC for various applications such as authentication systems, machine learning, etc.
Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE): Similar to MPC, FHE schemes enable computations on encrypted data without decryption, preserving the privacy of the underlying data. The group investigates advancements in FHE both as a standalone primitive as well as a building block in protocols for different applications.
Verifiable Computation: The group focuses on developing cryptographic protocols and techniques for verifiable computation, ensuring the integrity and correctness of computations performed by untrusted parties. They work in interactive (oracle) proofs, zero-knowledge proofs and aim to improve their efficiency and features so as to enable and further advance applications in outsourced computation, blockchain and others.
(post-quantum) cryptographic schemes so as to improve their security. They explore novel attack techniques, develop cryptanalysis tools, and contribute to the understanding of the strength and weaknesses of various cryptographic primitives and protocols.
Through a combination of theoretical analysis and practical implementations, the Future Proof Cryptography Research Group aims to develop robust cryptographic solutions that address the challenges of secure communication, data privacy, and computation in modern and future systems.
