Events Calendar

CS Colloquium: Huijia Rachel Lin (Boston U): Concurrent Security

Speaker: Huijia Rachel Lin, Boston U, CSAIL, MIT

Talk Title: Concurrent Security

Series: CS Colloquium

Abstract: Cryptographic protocols have been developed for a variety of tasks, including electronic auctions, electronic voting systems, privacy preserving data mining and more. Traditionally, these cryptographic protocols were analyzed in a simple “stand-alone” model which considers a single execution of the protocols taking place in isolation. Yet, in open networks, such as the Internet, executions of cryptographic protocols may occur concurrently. This concurrency undermines the security of protocols designed for the simple “stand-alone” model. As a consequence, in the past two decades, the study of concurrent security has been a main effort in Cryptography.

In this talk, I will present the first concurrently-secure protocols that enable securely performing general tasks (including all the above-mentioned ones), without relying on any trusted infrastructures or strong hardness assumptions. In particular, I introduce a novel technique that transforms any cryptographic protocol designed for the simple "stand-alone" setting, into one that is secure under concurrent executions. On the way, I solve a two-decade-old open problem, originating in the seminal paper introducing concurrent security.

Biography: Huijia Lin is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Department of Computer Science at Boston University. Earlier, she obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University. Her research interests are in the field of Cryptography.

Host: Shaddin Dughmi

Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Assistant to CS chair