| Cryptology deals with mathematical techniques for design and analysis of algorithms and protocols for digital security in the presence of malicious adversaries. For example, encryption and digital signatures are used to construct private and authentic communication channels, which are instrumental to secure Internet transactions. Another example of increasing importance is secure computation, which in principle enables an arbitrary computation to be distributed among the processors in a network so that computations remain secret and are performed correctly, even if a certain quorum of the network is under full control by an adversary. Advancing our understanding of secure communications and secure computation are among the primary goals in cryptology. It is fascinating and promising that the connection between cryptology and fields such as algebra, number theory, geometry, combinatorics, complexity theory, formal methods, quantum physics and information theory is in the process of becoming still deeper than ever before. The PNA5 theme was established on June 1, 2004. The group conducts fundamental and application-oriented research in cryptology and information security with a broad basis in mathematics and computer science. |
