It is well accepted that the discovery of public-key cryptography revolutionized the field of cryptology. One of its most long-lasting effects has been the development of a solid foundation for the field grounded in the concepts of complexity theory. This foundation is arguably one of the reasons for the success of modern cryptography as both an academic field and a research area. Such a foundation can also support trustworthy practical security solutions.
Thanks to the groundbreaking and foundational work of the last 30 years, we have gained some understanding of the relationship and reductions between intractability assumptions and cryptographic constructions, as well as between the cryptographic primitives themselves. Nevertheless, this is still an important and active research topic in cryptography, with many intriguing open questions about the computational intractability assumptions needed for fundamental primitives and the efficiency of the related constructions.
Modern cryptography is now in the midst of a second revolution. New techniques for homomorphic and functional encryption, verifiable computation, and obfuscation are changing the nature and objectives of cryptography from mere protection of data to pervasive protection of computation itself. Many of the new contributions in this area rely on new intractability assumptions that are still poorly understood . It is therefore imperative for the field to collectively explore these new assumptions in order to justify their use and our trust in them.
The goal of the workshop is to bring together mathematicians, complexity theorists, and cryptographers in an effort to explore the state of the art of complexity-based cryptography, while at the same time developing a solid foundational framework for the new techniques and assumptions underlying much of the new developments in cryptography, and expanding the theoretical assurances and justifications for them.
Tutorial and survey talks will help introduce the topics to students and researchers from other areas.
Next: Call for Participation
Workshop Index
DIMACS Homepage