Cryptography has been used for centuries by parties wishing to communicate securely. While it is historically associated with encryption (used to provide confidentiality), cryptography has now developed into a significant area in the intersection between computer science, mathematics and systems engineering, and plays a crucial role in today’s information security.

Modern applied cryptography is no longer limited to confidentiality. It is also used to provide, e.g. data integrity and authenticity, and entity authentication. Likewise, it is no longer limited to its traditional application for securing communications. Modern applied cryptography is also used to secure data storage, and increasingly to secure data under computation.

The Applied Cryptography Unit, led by Prof. Carlos Cid, investigates the design and analysis of modern cryptographic primitives and schemes used to protect the confidentiality and integrity of data – at rest, being communicated or computed upon – both in the classical and the quantum settings. Particular areas of interest include the design and analysis of quantum / post-quantum cryptography schemes, the algebraic cryptanalysis of symmetric and asymmetric key algorithms, as well as the design and analysis of primitives for privacy-preserving cryptographic mechanisms.