Our regular Crypto Café seminars take place every other Thursday,10 am-10:50 am during the semester. We invite local and international experts on topics in Mathematics and Computer Science related to Cryptography and Information Security.
Come and join us for freshly brewed coffee and interesting conversations on the most exciting topics in cryptography.
Where: SE-43 (Charles E. Schmidt College of Science) - Room 215 and via Zoom
You can catch up on any missed meetings by following the below link:
Spring, 2025, Crypto Cafe Schedule:
March 13, 2025, 10:00 am +Zoom (click here)
Speaker: Dipayan Das, Ph.D., Florida Atlantic University
Title: Cryptanalysis of some Lattice-based Assumptions
Abstract: Cryptography relies on the assumptions of computationally hard problems. It should be hard for security, offer functionalities for cryptographic applications, and be efficient to implement. Recently, lattice-based assumptions have emerged as a strong building block for post-quantum cryptography. In this talk, I will present recent cryptanalytic results on two lattice-based assumptions, namely the Finite Field Isomorpshim problem (PKC'18, JoMC'20), and the Partial Vandermonde Knapsack Problem (ACNS'14, DCC'15, ACISP'18, Eprint'20,DCC'22). These assumptions have been used extensively for various lattice-based constructions, including encryptions, fully homomorphic encryptions, signatures, signature aggregations, etc.
Bio: Dipayan Das is an Assistant Professor in the Florida Atlantic University Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Previously, he was a Postdoc researcher at the NTT Social Informatics Laboratories in Japan. Before that, he was a PostDoc researcher at CISPA Helmholtz center for information security in Germany. He did his PhD at the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur in India.
February 27, 2025, 10:00 am +Zoom (click here)
Speaker: Dominic Gold (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory) FLYER
Title: Deterministic Random Bit Generators in Cryptography
Abstract: Side-channel attacks (SCA) present a serious threat to cryptographic implementations, including those designed for post-quantum security. This talk introduces the first Correlation Power Analysis (CPA) attack on an industry-grade hardware implementation of ML-DSA within a Silicon Root of Trust framework. Our attack exploits side-channel leakage from the modular reduction process following the Number Theoretic Transform-based polynomial multiplication. By leveraging leakage from a unique reduction algorithm and the zeroization mechanism used for securely erasing sensitive data, we demonstrate secret key extraction using only 10,000 power traces. This attack compromises the integrity of the root of trust, enabling signature forgery for certificate generation. Our findings highlight critical vulnerabilities in commercially deployed post-quantum cryptographic systems and emphasize the need for robust countermeasures.
February 13, 2025, 10:00 am +Zoom (click here)
Speaker: Ivana Trummová, Ph.D. candidate, Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, Czech Republic FLYER
Title: Human Factors in Cryptography
Abstract: Cryptography can be considered a part of mathematics or computer science, therefore an exact and technical field. On the other hand, cryptography is created, implemented and used by people, who have to collaborate, communicate, and are prone to making mistakes. In my work, I am researching the non-technical aspects of cryptography that affect security. In one of my previous projects we have mapped the cryptography ecosystem, described the systemic barriers that hinder cryptography adoption. In another interview study, we found out how developers implement cryptographic standards and how an ideal standard specification should look like. Now I am studying the processes of cryptography competitions and their impacts on cryptographic community.
Speaker Bio: Ivana Trummová is a cryptography researcher and a teacher focusing on human factors in security and inter-disciplinary research. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Cryptography at the Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, Czech Republic. She also works as a teacher assistant at CTU, teaching courses on cryptography, mathematics and cybersecurity, and recently also a new course called "Human Factors in Cryptography and Security", which aims to bring an inter-disciplinary point of view to computer science students.
