📖Program Curriculum
Project details
Encrypting data is essential for ensuring the security of our electronic communications. The ciphers in current use are built from smaller components, one of them being a cryptographic Boolean function. Such functions must satisfy several properties in order to withstand cryptographic attacks: high non-linearity, high algebraic degree, low differential uniformity etc. This project will look mostly at differential uniformity as well as generalisations of this parameter. It aims to answer questions like: What are the optimal values that can be achieved for these parameters? How many optimal functions are there? How to construct such functions? How to test if proposed or existing functions (from currently existing ciphers) are optimal or close to optimal from this point is view? These results will feed into the design and analysis of future ciphers.
Your main supervisor will be Dr Ana Salagean, who has a long track record of research in the area of mathematical aspects of cryptography. You will also work alongside other PhD students and a postdoctoral research associate. The work will involve weekly meetings and opportunities to present the work in the Department and at international conferences and workshops. The PhD student will be free to develop their research in new directions, according to their own interests, as the work progresses. While the total working hours are expected to be similar to a full-time job, there is flexibility on when and where the work is done.
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