Digital Security

Cryptography

In the field of cryptography, two important focus areas of our research are symmetric crypto and post-quantum crypto, both from a design and engineering perspective. In our research on symmetric crypto we aim to lower energy consumption and processing time in cryptographic primitives and constructions, e.g. to extend battery life or to reduce heat production. Also, we investigate methods to implement them such that they offer resistance against side channel attacks and fault attacks. The research on post-quantum crypto investigates new forms of asymmetric cryptography that cannot be broken by quantum computers. If functioning large scale quantum computers can be built, all current public-key crypto standards would be broken, so then we need alternatives for electronic signatures and key establishment.

Security

All security assurances ultimately rely on hardware to ensure confidentiality and integrity of important data. Our research in hardware security focusses on side-channel analysis at the most potent attack vectors on hardware, where computation time, power consumption, electromagnetic emanations or faults are used to extract key material from devices. Themes within our security research are AI & security, software security, and mobile network security (5G networks).

Privacy

In the area of privacy, our research not only looks at the purely technical challenges of making privacy-enhancing technologies, but also legal implications and the challenges of designing usable human-computer interfaces. Much of this work is carried out at the Radboud iHUB, the interdisciplinary research hub on digitalisation and society. Legal aspects of IT have become an important driving force for privacy, notably through the EU's GDPR regulation, but law and regulation, as well as ethical concerns, are also more becoming more important for applications of AI. Here we also collaborate with the Data Science group of ICIS. On the more technical side, we investigate design patterns to practice Privacy-by-Design and web tracking technologies. To showcase privacy-friendly alternatives, we design and implement more specific privacy-friendly solutions for identity and data management.