Attività ed iniziative

DE CIFRIS TRENDS IN MODERN CRYPTOGRAPHY
THE FRENCH MAGISTERIUM

Not only many Italian cryptographers have joined our association "De Componendis Cifris", but also many other EU citizens, such as academics, students, professionals.

Among the many purposes of the association, there is support for the study and research in cryptography; therefore, it also promotes and coordinates educational and dissemination activities.
With this in mind, every year the association promotes a new course within the "Trends in Modern Cryptography Series" (a similar course was held in 2023 and in 2022).

This year we will have a special course in this series, "Trends in Modern Cryptography: the French magisterium".
This course introduces methods and techniques used in cryptography, in a broad sense (theory/applications, design/protocols, etc), with the help of twenty excellent French cryptographers. We strongly believe in the cooperation between France and Italy to strengthen European cryptography: this course is an important step in this direction.

The course is particularly well suited for MSC students interested in cryptography. We especially welcome Italian and French students, but also any other nationality is welcome.
We expect not only students to attend our course, but also anyone familiar with standard cryptography and its mathematical background can attend this course, including Ph.D. students, MSC graduates, and professionals working for companies or for the public sector.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Organizers

Alessio Meneghetti (UNITN) and Sihem Mesnager (Paris VIII).

Lecturers

Magali Bardet (University of Rouen, France). Sonia Belaïd (CryptoExperts, Paris, France). Jean-Francois Biasse (Center for Cryptographic Research, USF, USA). Christina Boura (University of Versailles, France). Sébastien Canard (Telecom Paris- Saclay, France). Anne Canteaut (INRIA Paris, France). Claude Carlet (Universities of Bergen and Paris 8, France). Léo Ducas (Centrum Wiskunde Informatica (CWI), Amsterdam, Netherlands) Thomas Debris-Alazard (INRIA Paris, France). Louis Goubin (University of Versailles, France). Adeline Roux-Langlois (GREYC, CNRS, Unicaen, Ensicaen, Caen, France). Alice Pellet-Mary (University of Bordeaux, France). Sihem Mesnager (Universities of Paris VIII and Sorbonne North, France). Pierrick Meaux (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg). Ludovic Perret (University of Paris VII, France). Léo Perrin (INRIA Paris, France) . Damien Stehlé (ENS Lyon, France). Serge Vaudenay (EPFL Switzerland). Damien Vergnaud (Sorbonne University, France). Giles Zémor (University of Bordeaux, France).

Course structure

TThe course is divided into twenty online lectures, made available to all participants via YouTube. The lessons are held in English and take place at 5:00 PM in September, October and November 2024. The lectures are recorded and available to all participants of the course. The recorded lectures will be open to everyone a few months after the course, that is, in early 2025.

Course prerequisites

  • Mathematics: basic concepts of computational complexity, elementary number theory and probability theory.
  • Symmetric cryptography: basic understanding of block ciphers, stream ciphers, hash functions and MAC's.
  • Public-key cryptography: DH and RSA.
  • Protocols: some general concept on protocols, such as those necessary to understand SSL/TLS.

Registration and costs

The course is free of charge, and any De Cifris member can attend. Registration is open until the end of October 2024 or until the maximum number of attendees (five hundred) is reached. For any further information about the registration, write to trends@decifris.it.

COURSE PROGRAM

Date Subject Time Lecturer
Sep 30 The Almost Perfect Nonlinearity of Substitution Boxes and its Consequences
Slides 		17:00 Claude Carlet
(Universities of Bergen and Paris 8, France)
Oct 03 Algebraic aspects in designing cryptographic functions in symmetric cryptography
Slides 		17:00 Sihem Mesnager
(Universities of Paris VIII and Sorbonne North, France)
Oct 07 Lightweight symmetric primitives
Slides 		17:00 Anne Canteaut
(INRIA Paris, France)
Oct 10 Symmetric Techniques for Advanced Protocols: Design Strategies, and Cryptanalysis
Slides 		17:00 Léo Perrin
(INRIA Paris, France)
Oct 14 The Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography
Slides 		17:00 Ludovic Perret
(University of Paris VII, France)
Oct 17 Lattice-based Cryptography (I)
Slides 		17:00 Léo Ducas
(Centrum Wiskunde Informatica (CWI), Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Oct 21 Lattice-based Cryptography (II)
Slides 		17:00 Alice Pellet-Mary
(University of Bordeaux, France)
Oct 24 Hardness of the Module Learning With Errors Problem
Slides 		17:00 Adeline Roux-Langlois
(GREYC, CNRS, Unicaen, Ensicaen, Caen, France)
Oct 28 Diving into Multivariate Cryptography
Slides 		17:00 Louis Goubin
(University of Versailles, France)
Oct 31 The Code Equivalence Problem and its Applications to Cryptography
Slides 		17:00 Jean-Francois Biasse
(Center for Cryptographic Research, USF, USA)
Nov 04 Code-based Cryptography
Slides 		17:00 Thomas Debris-Alazard
(INRIA Paris, France)
Nov 07 The Alekhnovich cryptosystem: code-based cryptography with security proofs
Slides 		17:00 Giles Zémor
(University of Bordeaux, France)
Nov 11 Multi-Party Computation in the Head: Techniques and Applications
Slides 		17:00 Damien Vergnaud
(Sorbonne University, France)
Nov 14 Polynomial System Solving and Application to Algebraic Cryptanalysis
Slides 		17:00 Magali Bardet
(University of Rouen, France)
Nov 18 Tools for cryptanalysis of symmetric primitives
Slides 		17:00 Christina Boura
(University of Versailles, France)
Nov 21 Side-Channel Attacks and Masking Countermeasures
Slides 		17:00 Sonia Belaïd
(CryptoExperts, Paris, France)
Nov 25 Fully Homomorphic Encryption
Slides 		17:00 Damien Stehlé
(ENS Lyon, France)
Nov 28 Hybrid Homomorphic Encryption
Slides 		17:00 Pierrick Meaux
(University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg)
Dec 02 Cryptography for anonymity and accountability
Slides 		17:00 Sébastien Canard
(Telecom Paris- Saclay, France)
Dec 05 Anonymous Tokens
Slides 		17:00 Serge Vaudenay
(EPFL Switzerland)
Dec 09 Trends 24 - Recap and Concluding Remarks 17:00 Sihem Mesnager

EXAMINATION

The participants who pass an online test in late January 2025 will receive a "Course Attendance" certificate. The test consists of a written essay with personalized questions to be completed online in one hour.

INFORMATION FOR ENROLLED STUDENTS

Please forward any question about the lectures either to trends@decifris.it or to alessio.meneghetti@unitn.it.