Research in Cryptology

We are mainly interested in research in cryptographic protocol design and privacy-enhancing cryptography. The Crypto Group is a part of Department of Telecommunications at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication  at Brno University of Technology. The Crypto Group is a member of the Sensor, Information and Communication Systems (SIX) research centre. There are three sections in our group devoted to different aspects of cryptology.

Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

The group deals with the design of new authentication schemes with privacy-enhancing features (known as anonymous authentication schemes, anonymous credential schemes, anonymous tokens or anonymous attribute-based authentication schemes). The research includes design, formal verification and implementation on multiple platforms like smart-cards and mobile devices. Furthermore, the group deals with protocols for privacy-enhanced data collection from smart-grids and electronic IDs.

Security in Industrial and Smart-Grid Networks

In many applications, classical cryptographic protocols are too complex for implementation. Thus, more simple and computationally efficient protocols must be developed. These protocols ensure message confidentiality, authenticity and privacy enhancing features. The potential applications are smart-grids, smart-metering, vehicular networks, sensor networks or low-performance devices like smart-cards. We also develop new certification profiles and testing methodologies, mainly for the smart grid applications.

Hardware-Accelerated Cryptography

In some applications, the performance of traditional server platforms might not be sufficient. In these cases, the encryption algorithms can be implemented on special platforms, such as the FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays). Currently, the FPGA group deals with the implementation of block ciphers on 200 GbE FPGA network cards.

Additionally, our group deals with smaller projects focused on practical aspects of computer security. These projects include the analysis and usage of hardware devices (smart-cards, smart-phones, NFC devices, etc.), penetration testing and security analysis of communication protocols. Of course, we are always open to new ideas and directions for future research.