The 6th BIU Winter School

 

CRYPTOGRAPHY IN THE CLOUD – VERIFIABLE COMPUTATION AND SPECIAL ENCRYPTION

JANUARY 4-7, 2016

 

SCHOOL OVERVIEW

Numerous challenges arise in the move to cloud computing. In this school, we will study two of them in depth. The first topic is that of verifiable computation. This considers the problem of a client (or local computer) outsourcing computation to an external server (e.g., the cloud). In this setting, the client wishes to verify that the result of the computation carried out by the server is correct. However, the verification of this proof should be much faster than carrying out the computation from scratch. The research in this area has deep and beautiful theory, and has recently progressed to implementations and applications. The school will cover the entire spectrum of research on this topic.

The second topic considers different types of encryption methods that enable clients to encrypt data and carry out limited processing (e.g., search) while keeping it encrypted. These types of encryption are classically intended for use in the cloud, since data only needs to be decrypted once it is retrieved. The school will cover format-preserving and order-preserving encryption (and their weaknesses), and practical searchable encryption.

The school program includes approximately 21 hours of lectures and a half-day excursion.

The target audience for the school is graduate students and postdocs in cryptography (we will assume that participants have taken at least one university-level course in cryptography). However, all faculty, undergrads and professionals with the necessary background are welcome. The winter school is open to participants from all over the world; all talks will be in English.

* Note that the winter school is co-located with TCC2016, which will be held in Tel-Aviv on January 10-13, 2016.

SCHOOL LECTURERS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Organizers: Yehuda Lindell and Benny Pinkas, Department of Computer Science,  Carmit Hazay, Faculty of Engineering, Bar Ilan University, Israel

Where: The winter school will take place at the Rayman hall at Kfar Hamaccabiah events & conference center in Ramat Gan

When: Monday January 4, 2016 to Thursday January 7, 2016

Note that the 13th Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC 2016) will be held in Tel-Aviv in the week following the winter school (January 10-13, 2016).

Registration: Due to rising costs, registration this year is 100 shekels per day. Registration is free for overseas participants (due to costs already incurred due to travel). Israeli participants who have difficulty paying the registration fee can request a waiver; please include this in the special request box in the registration form. After registration has been confirmed, Israeli participants will recieve a link to carry out the payment. Registration will be considered complete only after payment.

Registration includes school participation, lunch, refreshments and the excursion (Accommodation is not included). Please register by November 30, 2015.

Contact: For any questions or queries, please send an e-mail to: winterschool.biu@gmail.com

Hotel: We have arranged a special rate at the Kfar Hamaccabiah Hotel where the conference center is located. The rate is $160 a night for a single room, $180 a night for a double room (with two occupants) and $220 for a triple room (with three occupants). The rate includes breakfast.

Support: A limited number of stipends of $800 each (for flight and accommodation) will be awarded for overseas students needing support. The deadline for stipend application is November 15, 2015. Please submit your application here, and have your advisor send a letter justifying the need for financial support.

Sponsorship: This winter school is graciously sponsored by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. 615172 (HIPS), the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n. 609611 (PRACTICE) and the BIU Center for Research in Applied Cryptography and Cyber Security in conjunction with the Israel National Cyber Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Office, Bar-Ilan University.

This winter school is also co-organized with COST action IC1306–CryptoAction.

 

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Program Schedule: The detailed schedule for the winter school can be downloaded here.

Monday, January 4: Verifiable Computation

  • Michael Walfish: Introduction and Overview of Verifiable Computation (Slides and video)
  • Yael Kalai: Short Proofs of Delegated Computation: Foundations and Feasibility 1  (video)
  • Yael Kalai: Short Proofs of Delegated Computation: Foundations and Feasibility 2  (video)
  • Yael Kalai: Short Proofs of Delegated Computation: Foundations and Feasibility 3   (video)
  • Michael Walfish: Interactive Arguments with Preprocessing   (Slides and video)
  • Eran Tromer: SNARKs with Preprocessing     Slides and video)

Tuesday, January 5: Verifiable Computation

  • Michael Walfish: Interactive Proofs and Program Representations 1  (Slides and video)
  • Eran Tromer: Program Representations 2 (video)
  • Eran Tromer: SNARKs (without Preprocessing) and Their Applications (video)
  • Excursion

Wednesday, January 6: Verifiable Computation and Special Encryption

  • Michael Walfish: Additional Applications and Summary of Verifiable Computation   (Slides and video)
  • Alexandra Boldyreva: Introduction to Searchable Encryption (models and motivation)   (video)
  • Mor Weiss: Format-Preserving Encryption 1    (Slides) to all of Mor Weiss’s talks) (video)
  • Mor Weiss: Format-Preserving Encryption 2    (video)
  • Mor Weiss: Format-Preserving Encryption 3    (video)
  • Alexandra Boldyreva: Order-Preserving Encryption 1   (video)
  • Alexandra Boldyreva: Order-Preserving Encryption 2   (video)

Thursday, January 7: Special Encryption

  • Alexandra Boldyreva: Statistical Attacks on Deterministic and Order-Preserving Encryption  (video)
  • Hugo Krawczyk: Probabilistic Searchable Symmetric Encryption  (Slides to all of Hugo Krawczyk’s talks – Slides 1, Slides 2) (video)
  • Hugo Krawczyk: Practical Searchable Encryption on Large Datasets 1  (video)
  • Benny Pinkas: Searchable Encryption using ORAM    (Slides and video)
  • Hugo Krawczyk: Practical Searchable Encryption on Large Datasets 2  (video)
  • Hugo Krawczyk: Practical Searchable Encryption on Large Datasets 3  (video)
Posted by Gil Hamer