SandboxAQ Internships

You may or may not be aware that at SandboxAQ we have an internship residency programme. Residencies would typically be remote but can be on-site, they can take place year round and last between three to twelve months, full-time or part-time. To take part, you’d need to be a PhD student or postdoc somewhere.

In the interest of advertising our programme, here are two example ideas I’d be interested in.

Add SIS and (overstretched-)NTRU to the Lattice Estimator

The name “lattice estimator” at present is more aspirational than factual. In particular, we cover algorithms for solving LWE but not algorithms for solving SIS or (overstretched) NTRU. Well, we implicitly cover SIS because solving SIS implies solving LWE (and we cost that: the “dual attack”), we don’t have a nice interface to ask “how hard would this SIS instance be”. Adding this would be a nice contribution to the community, given how widely that estimator is used.

OPRFs from Lattices

Our first work on building OPRFs from lattices costs about 2MB of bandwidth if you ignore the zero-knowledge proofs and something like 128GB (yes, GB) if you count them. Since then, proving lattice statements has become a lot cheaper, so a natural project is to reconsider our construction: use newer/smaller proofs, tune the parameters, prove it in a nicer game-based model or in UC. To give you a taste of what is possible: This work building a non-interactive key-exchange (NIKE) has to solve essentially the same problem (noise drowning + ZK proofs) and achieves smaller parameters.

If you are interested, or have some other ideas, ping me and apply for a PQC resident position.

Lecturer (≅ Assistant Professor/Juniorprofessor/Maître de conférences) in Cryptography at King’s College London

As you may or may not have heard, I will join the Department of Informatics at King’s College London from 2023. Specifically, I will join the Cybersecurity Group there with the aim to build a cryptography lab. As part of that plan, we are going to hire for four staff positions (three at the lecturer level, one at the senior lecturer level). The first of these is now on the market:

https://jobs.kcl.ac.uk/gb/en/job/054515/Lecturer-in-Cryptography

Note that the plan here is not to build an exclusive lattice-based cryptography, mathematical cryptography, post-quantum cryptography or a cryptanalysis lab, but our ambition is to build a lab with expertise across cryptography. I think this creates a fun and interesting research environment. So consider applying if you consider FSE, CHES, PKC, TCC or RWC your home venue or any other area of cryptography.

Normally, in this genre of blog posts I’d now go on talking about how amazing the department and everybody in it is but I’ve yet to start at KCL myself. However, everything I’ve seen so far makes me really quite optimistic, the department is strong and the people are nice.

The application deadline is somewhat far into the future (1 March 2023). So, if you like, there’s plenty of time to reach out to discuss or even to come visit us to check us out.

We’d appreciate any help in spreading the word. Happy to answer any questions I can answer or to direct to you to someone who can.

Lecturer (≅ Assistant Professor/Juniorprofessor/Maître de conférences) in Computer Science (Quantum Computing)

Our colleagues in Computer Science (I am a computer scientist by training but I sit in the Department of Information Security aka the “Information Security Group”) are looking to hire a lecturer (roughly equivalent to assistant professor, Juniorprofessor or maître de conférences) with a focus on quantum algorithms. I’m reproducing the full ad below, but here’s why I think that’s rather exciting and you should apply if that’s your jam.

As you may know, several of us in the ISG work in the area of post-quantum cryptography, an area adjacent to quantum computing. To give some examples, Simon and co-authors showed that there are regimes where subexponential quantum attacks on SIDH exist; Eamonn, me and co-authors gave resource estimates for running quantum sieving attacks on lattice-based schemes; Carlos and co-authors gave polynomial-time quantum attacks (i.e. with superposition queries) against the CPA security of contracting Feistel structures; Chris discussed the impact of quantum computing on 5G; Fernando and co-authors gave resource estimates (and Q# code!) for breaking AES on a quantum computer; Eamonn and co-authors improved “low-memory” sieving in a quantum setting. We have a lively research community of PhD students, postdocs and staff. Speaking of PhD students, due to our CDT in Cyber Security of the Everyday, we are currently recruiting 10 students per year across the field of information security, including the “quantum threat”. Moreover, as mentioned in the ad, the College considers quantum a key priority. Some of our physicists work in various areas of quantum, some of our mathematicians work on quantum dynamics.

Feel free to reach out to me if you want to discuss what it is like working at Royal Holloway. For specifics about this post, reach out to Magnus (HoD of CS). Also feel encouraged to disseminate this ad through your networks.

10 PhD Positions at Royal Holloway’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security for the Everyday

At Royal Holloway we are again taking applications for ten fully-funded PhD positions in Information Security. See the CDT website and the ISG website for what kind of research we do. Also, check out our past and current CDT students and our research seminar schedule to get an idea of how broad and diverse the areas of information security are in which the ISG works.

More narrowly, to give you some idea of cryptographic research (and thus supervision capacity) in the Cryptography Group at Royal Holloway: currently, we are nine permanent members of staff: Simon Blackburn (Maths), Saqib A. Kakvi, Keith Martin, Sean Murphy, Siaw-Lynn Ng, Rachel Player, Liz Quaglia and me. In addition, there are three postdocs working on cryptography and roughly 14 PhD students. Focus areas of cryptographic research currently are: lattice-based cryptography and applications, post-quantum cryptography, symmetric cryptography, statistics, access control, information-theoretic security and protocols.

To give you a better sense of what is possible, here are some example projects. These are in no way prescriptive and serve to give some ideas:

1. I am, as always, interested in exploring lattice-based and post-quantum cryptography; algorithms for solving the hard underlying protocols, efficient implementations, lifting pre-quantum constructions to the post-quantum era.
2. Together with my colleague Rikke Jensen, we want to explore security needs and practices in large-scale protests using ethnographic methods. We’ve done an interview-based (i.e. not ethnography-based) pilot with protesters in Hong Kong and think grounding cryptographic security notions in the needs, erm, on the ground, will prove rather fruitful.
3. My colleague Rachel Player is looking at privacy-preserving outsourced computation, with a focus on (fully) homomorphic encryption.
4. My (new) colleague Guido Schmitz uses formal methods to study cryptographic protocols.

Note that most of these positions are reserved for UK residents, which does, however, not mean nationality (see CDT website for details) and we can award three of our scholarships without any such constraint, i.e. international applicants. The studentship includes tuition fees and maintenance (£21,285 for each academic year).

To apply, go here. Feel free to get in touch if you have questions about whether this is right for you. Official announcement follows.

We’re hiring!

The ISG is recruiting two lecturers (≡ assistant professor in the US system/Juniorprofessor in Germany/Maître de conférences in France). These are full-time, permanent research and teaching positions.

Let me give you a personal pitch of why you should apply:

• It’s a big group. We got 23 permanent members of staff working across the field of information security: cryptography, systems and social foundations. Check out our seminar programme and our publications to get a sense of what is going on in the group.
• More specific perhaps to this audience: We have a big cryptography group with 9 permanent members of staff, several postdocs and many PhD students. Check out our website, publications and our joint seminar series with ENS Lyon and CWI Amsterdam to get a sense.
• It’s a group with a good mix of areas and lots of interaction. UK universities don’t work like German ones where professors have their little empires which don’t interact all that much. Rather, the hierarchies are pretty flat within a department (everybody is line managed by the Head of Department, Chris Mitchell, who is great) which facilitates more interaction; at least within the ISG that’s true. For example, I doubt the sort of collaboration that led to our HK paper would have come about if we didn’t attend the same meetings, taught the same modules, went to lunch and the pub together etc. Interdisciplinarity from above is annoying, when it emerges spontaneously it can be great.
• It’s a nice group. People are genuinely friendly and we help each other out. It will be easy to find someone to proof read your grant applications or share previously successfully funded ones etc. I don’t know any official numbers but the unionisation level seems to be relatively high, which I also take as an indication that people don’t adopt a “everyone for themselves” approach.
• We got funding for our Centre for Doctoral Training for the next few years (then we have to reapply). This means 10 PhD positions per year. Also, our CDT attracts strong students. My research career really took off after getting a chance to work with our amazing students.
• The ISG is its own department (in a school with Physics, EE, Mathematics and Computer Science). All of our teaching is on information security with a focus on our Information Security MSc (which is huge). So you’ll get to teach information security.
• The ISG has strong industry links. Thus, if that’s your cup of tea, it will be easy to get introductions etc. A side effect of these strong links is that consulting opportunities tend to pop up. Consulting is not only permitted by the employer but encouraged (they take a cut if you do it through them).
• The ISG is a large group but Royal Holloway is a relatively small university. That means getting things done by speaking to the person in charge is often possible, i.e. it’s not some massive bureaucracy and exceptions can be negotiated.
• It’s within one standard deviation from London. This means UCL and Surrey, and thus the researchers there, aren’t too far away. Also, you get to live in London (or near Egham if that’s your thing, no judgement).

We’d appreciate any help in spreading the word. Happy to answer questions, just get in touch.

Reader/Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in the ISG

The ISG is recruiting a senior lecturer/reader (≡ associate professor in the US system). This is a full-time, permanent research and teaching position.

Look, I know this is post-Brexit England but let me give you a personal pitch of why you should apply:

• It’s a big group. We got ~20 permanent members of staff working across the field of information security: cryptography, systems and social. Check out our seminar programme and our publications to get a sense of what is going on in the group.
• It’s a group with a good mix of areas and lots of interaction. UK universities don’t work like German ones where professors have their little empires which don’t interact all too much. Rather, the hierarchies are pretty flat within a department (everybody is line managed by the Head of Department) which facilitates more interaction; at least within the ISG that’s true. For example, I’m currently working on a project with someone from the systems and software security lab and one of our social scientists. I doubt this sort of collaboration would have come about if we didn’t attend the same meetings, taught the same modules, went to lunch and the pub together etc. Interdisciplinarity from above is annoying, when it emerges spontaneously it can be great.
• It’s a nice group. People are genuinely friendly and we help each other out. It will be easy to find someone to proof read your grant applications or share previously successfully funded ones etc. I don’t know any official numbers but the unionisation level seems to be relatively high, which I also take as an indication that people don’t adopt a “everyone for themselves” approach.
• We got funding for our Centre for Doctoral Training for the next few years (then we have to reapply). This means 10 PhD positions per year. Also, our CDT attracts strong students. My research career really took off after getting a chance to work with our amazing students.
• The ISG is its own department (in a school with Physics, EE, Mathematics and Computer Science). All of our teaching is on information security with a focus on our Information Security MSc (which is huge). So you’ll get to teach information security.
• The ISG has strong industry links. Thus, if that’s your cup of tea, it will be easy to get introductions etc. A side effect of these strong links is that consulting opportunities tend to pop up. Consulting is not only permitted by the employer but encouraged (they take a cut if you do it through them).
• The ISG is a large group but Royal Holloway is a relatively small university. That means getting things done by speaking to the person in charge is often possible, i.e. it’s not some massive bureaucracy and exceptions can be negotiated.
• It’s within one standard deviation from London. This means UCL and Surrey, and thus the researchers there, aren’t too far away. Also, you get to live in London (or near Egham if that’s your thing, no judgement).

We’d appreciate any help in spreading the word. Happy to answer any questions I can answer.

The ad says “senior lecturer” but, speaking for myself, I’d recommend to apply even if you’re going for the lecturer/assistant professor/Juniorprofessor stage in your career. Also, I’d encourage people from all areas of information security to apply.

Postdoc at Royal Holloway on Lattice-based Cryptography

I’m looking for a postdoc to work with me and others – in the ISG and at Imperial College – on lattice-based cryptography and, ideally, its connections to coding theory.

The ISG is a nice place to work; it’s a friendly environment with strong research going on in several areas. We got people working across the field of information security including several people working on cryptography. For example, Carlos Cid, Anamaria Costache, Lydia Garms, Jianwei Li, Sean Murphy, Rachel Player, Eamonn Postlethwaite, Joe Rowell, Fernando Virdia and me all have looked at or are looking at lattice-based cryptography.

A postdoc here is a 100% research position, i.e. you wouldn’t have teaching duties. That said, if you’d like to gain some teaching experience, we can arrange for that as well.

If you have e.g. a two-body problem and would like to discuss flexibility about being in the office (assuming we’ll all be back in the office at some post-covid19 point), feel free to get in touch.

Postdoc at Royal Holloway on Lattice-based Cryptography

Update: 25/09/2020: New deadline: 30 October.

We are looking for a postdoc to join us to work on lattice-based cryptography. This postdoc is funded by the EU H2020 PROMETHEUS project for building privacy preserving systems from advanced lattice primitives. At Royal Holloway, the project is looked after by Rachel Player and me. Feel free to e-mail me with any queries you might have.

The ISG is a nice place to work; it’s a very friendly environment with strong research going on in several areas. We got people working across the field of information security including several people working on cryptography. A postdoc here is a 100% research position, i.e. you wouldn’t have teaching duties. That said, if you’d like to gain some teaching experience, we can arrange for that as well.

Also, if you have e.g. a two-body problem and would like to discuss flexibility about being in the office (assuming we’ll all be back in the office at some post-covid19 point), feel free to get in touch.

Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Cryptography in the ISG

Unfortunately, recruitment for this post was stopped due to the uncertain financial position that UK universities are in at the moment.

The ISG is recruiting a lecturer (≡ assistant professor in the US system, ≡ Juniorprofessor in the German system, ≡ Maître de conférences in the French system; that’s all the systems I know). This is a full-time, permanent research and teaching position.

Look, I know this is England post-Brexit but let me give you a personal pitch of why you should apply:

• It’s a big group. We got ~20 permanent members of staff working across the field of information security: cryptography, systems and social. Check out our seminar programme and our publications to get a sense of what is going on in the group.
• It’s a group with lots of cryptography going on. As mentioned in the ad below, eight permanent members of staff, five postdocs and about 15 PhD students focus on or contribute to cryptographic research. As a corollary, we also have plenty of cryptographers coming through for visits and talks. We got a weekly cryptography reading group, our students have another one and our seminar regularly has cryptography talks.
• It’s a group with a good mix of areas and lots of interaction. UK universities don’t work like German ones where professors have their little empires which don’t interact all too much. Rather, the hierarchies are pretty flat within a department (everybody is line managed by the Head of Department) which facilitates more interaction; at least within the ISG that’s true. For example, I’m currently working on a project with someone from the systems and software security lab and one of our social scientists. I doubt this sort of collaboration would have come about if we didn’t attend the same meetings, taught the same modules, went to lunch and the pub together etc. Interdisciplinarity from above is annoying, when it emerges spontaneously it can be great.
• It’s a nice group. People are genuinely friendly and we help each other out. It will be easy to find someone to proof read your grant applications or share previously successfully funded ones etc. I don’t know any official numbers but the unionisation level seems to be relatively high, which I also take as an indication that people don’t adopt a “everyone for themselves” approach.
• We got funding for our Centre for Doctoral Training for the next four years (then we have to reapply). This means 10 PhD positions per year. Also, our CDT attracts strong students. My research career really took off after getting a chance to work with our amazing students.
• The ISG is its own department (in a school with Physics, EE, Mathematics and Computer Science). All of our teaching is on information security with a focus on our Information Security MSc (which is huge). So you’ll get to teach information security. It is unlikely, though, that you will get to teach cryptography specifically.
• The ISG has strong industry links. Thus, if that’s your cup of tea, it will be easy to get introductions etc. A side effect of these strong links is that consulting opportunities tend to pop up. Consulting is not only permitted by the employer but encouraged (they take a cut if you do it through them).
• The ISG is a large group but Royal Holloway is a relatively small university. That means getting things done by speaking to the person in charge is often possible, i.e. it’s not some massive bureaucracy and exceptions can be negotiated.
• It’s within one standard deviation from London. This means UCL and Surrey, and thus the cryptographers there, aren’t too far away. London Crypto Day is a thing and so are the London-ish Lattice Coding & Crypto Meetings. Also, you get to live in London (or near Egham if that’s your thing, no judgement).

I’m happy to answer informal inquiries etc. We’d appreciate any help in spreading the word.

10 PhD Positions at Royal Holloway’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security for the Everyday

At Royal Holloway we are again taking applications for ten fully-funded PhD positions in Information Security. See the CDT website and the ISG website for what kind of research we do. Also, check out our past and current CDT students and our research seminar schedule to get an idea of how broad and diverse the areas of information security are in which the ISG works.

More narrowly, to give you some idea of cryptographic research (and thus supervision capacity) in the ISG/at Royal Holloway: currently, there are nine permanent members of staff working on cryptography: Simon Blackburn (Maths), Carlos Cid, Keith Martin, Sean Murphy, Siaw-Lynn Ng, Rachel Player, Liz Quaglia and me. In addition, there are five postdocs working on cryptography and roughly 15 PhD students. Focus areas of cryptographic research currently are: lattice-based cryptography and applications, post-quantum cryptography, symmetric cryptography, statistics, access control, information-theoretic security and protocols.

Note that most of these positions are reserved for UK residents, which does, however, not mean nationality (see CDT website for details) and there might also be some wiggle room for EU residents (yes, still!).