07381 Executive Summary - Cryptography

Abstract

The topics covered in the seminar spanned most areas of cryptography,
in one way or another, both in terms of the types of schemes
(public-key cryptography, symmetric cryptography, hash functions and
other cryptographic functions, multi-party protocols, etc.) and in terms of the
mathematical methods and techniques used (algebra, number theory,
elliptic curves, probability theory, information theory,
combinatorics, quantum theory, etc.).  The range of applications
addressed in the various talks was broad, ranging from secure
communication, key management, authentication, digital signatures and
payment systems to e-voting and Internet security.

While the initial plan had been to focus more exclusively on public-key
cryptography, it turned out that this sub-topic branches out into
many other areas of cryptography and therefore the organizers
decided to expand the scope, emphasizing quality rather than
close adherence to public-key cryptography. This decision turned
out to be a wise one.

What was common to almost all the talks is that rigorous mathematical
proofs for the security of the presented schemes were given. In fact,
a central topic of many of the talks were proof methodologies for
various contexts.