Research Interests – Crypto Currencies:

• All topics in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Darkcoin etc.
• How to speed up the hashing process with SHA256.
• How to steal bitcoins with SHA256+secp256k1+BIP032 etc.
• The Longest Chain Rule and programmed self-destruction of crypto currencies.
• Hash rate vs. security.
• 51% attacks and Double Spending attacks.
• Monetary policy.
• Regulation, backdoors, dark side of open source software.

Research Interests – Cryptology:

• Computational cryptanalysis of symmetric and asymmetric ciphers.
  • Algebraic Attacks: recover the secret key of a cipher by solving a very large
    system of multivariate equations over small finite fields.
    • Special properties that make systems efficiently solvable (e.g. sparsity).
    • Conversion and solving algebraic equations with SAT solvers.
    • Computing Gröbner bases and designing simpler and frequently much
      better/faster algorithms: Gröbner basis require a fixed polynomial ordering. In
      many real-life cryptanalysis problems this is a VERY bad idea
      and better results are obtained with ad-hoc elimination
      algorithms which optimize sparsity such as ElimLin
      (and its practical implementations which take care of sparsity).
  • Design and feasability of algebraic attacks: for example some stream ciphers
    will be broken if a certain multivariate polynomial equation exists (sometimes
    finding one such equation is sufficient to break the cipher!). Cryptanalysis of
    some block ciphers greatly depends on whether they can be written in a certain
    way.
    • Define what kind of equations are useful/interesting. Find out if such
      equations exist, prove they exist (or not), compute these equations.
    • Can AES be broken?
  • Experimental algebraic cryptanalysis.
    • Automation of symmetric cryptanalysis. Finding special properties of ciphers.
    • Implementation of algebraic attacks. Manipulating very large systems of
      multivariate equations. Fast linear algebra, in particular when RAM is scarce.
      Specialised memory management, parallel computing, use of specialised hardware.
  • Number theory and lattices.
  • Side channel attacks on smart cards.
  • Russian and Soviet cryptography.
• Post-quantum cryptography and very efficient public key schemes for special
  needs:
  • Very short digital signatures (that can be transmitted or and verified with
    human interaction). Unforgeability and third-party verifiable authenticity of
    paper documents (bank notes, cheques, ID cards, electronic airline tickets,
    etc.).
  • Very fast digital signatures (much faster than RSA) for low-cost devices.

Research Interests – Information Security:

• Computer Security
  • All topics! I used to teach Computer Security at UCL: here are my slides.
  • I have always insisted that computer security is obtained by combination of hardware and software.
• Markets and Information Security:
  • Security in complex commercial systems. For example electronic bank cards +
    terminals + back-end applications + supporting infrastructure+ user
    adoption + usability + legal and regulatory drivers + economics + fraud + crime
    science + moral and ethical considerations. Compliance.
  • Smart cards and smart card protocols.
  • Proprietary cryptography.
  • Crypto currencies.
  • Economics of security, prices, bets and future markets in information security.
  • Risk management. Fraud in financial markets and financial institutions.
    Data security and compliance in financial institutions.

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