Basser Seminar Series: Yung -- Malicious Cryptography

Speaker: Dr Moti Yung (Columbia University, Google)
Title: Malicious Cryptography: beyond adhering to specifications in secure systems
Time & Place: 3:30pm - 4:30pm, Tuesday 2 December, J12 Lecture Theatre 123
The talk is preceded by afternoon tea at 3pm.  

Abstract: Modern Cryptography has been very successful, defining primitives and models,
and constructing them based on underlying hardness assumptions.  Proving correctness and
security properties of these specified primitives, and then applying implementations in
real systems, completes the ``theory and practice'' success story of modern
cryptography.  

In the last three decades I have been looking at the broad notion of ``Malicious
Cryptography,'' where systems can be re-directed and re-purposed to do things beyond
their initial specifications (at times contradictory to them).  The work has challenged
the careless use/ design of cryptography by users on the one hand, and the limitations
by adversarial bodies attempting to control the use of cryptography (known as the
"Crypto Wars"), on the other hand.  

The work has produced some areas.  I will cover the preliminary motivating case studies
of: - Breaking of fielded Escrow Encryptions; -The prediction of Ransomware and its
countermeasures.  And then, the further systematic treatment of repurposed cryptographic
systems: -Kleptography: the abuse of unscrutinized systems by systems designers and
manufacturers; -Cliptography (or Post-Snowden Cryptography, reaction to use of
kleptography and methods for coping with it); and -Recently, Anamorphic Encryption:
showing that it is inherent for cryptographic systems to be able to bypass very strong
limitations on its usage.  

Link to Basser seminar series:
https://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/schools/school-of-computer-science/basser-seminars.html