CRYPTOGRAPHY IN THE CLOUD – VERIFIABLE COMPUTATION AND SPECIAL ENCRYPTION

Organized by Yehuda Lindell and Benny Pinkas, Department of Computer Science, Carmit Hazay, Faculty of Engineering Bar-Ilan University, Israel

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.

School Lecturers

• Alexandra Boldyreva (Georgia Tech)
• Yael Kalai (Microsoft Research)
• Hugo Krawczyk (IBM T.J. Watson)
• Benny Pinkas (Bar-Ilan University)
• Eran Tromer (Tel-Aviv University)
• Michael Walfish (New York University)
• Mor Weiss (Technion)

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.

Talks

See the schedule here!

Verifiable Computation 1

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

Verifiable Computation 2

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

Verifiable Computation and Special Encryption

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

Special Encryption

• Statistical Attacks on Deterministic and Order-Preserving Encryption - Alexandra Boldyreva (video)
• Probabilistic Searchable Symmetric Encryption - Hugo Krawczyk (video)
• Practical Searchable Encryption on Large Datasets 1 - Hugo Krawczyk
• Searchable Encryption using ORAM - Benny Pinkas (video)
• Practical Searchable Encryption on Large Datasets 2 - Hugo Krawczyk (video)
• Practical Searchable Encryption on Large Datasets 3 - Hugo Krawczyk (video)

Information for Participants

• Where: Rayman Hall, Kfar Hamaccabiah Events & Conference Center, Ramat Gan
• When: Monday 4/1/2016 to Thursday 7/1/2016
• 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.

• Hotel: We have arranged a special rate at the Kfar Maccabiah hotel for winter school participants from abroad, or local participants who wish to stay close to Bar-Ilan University. 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.