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Applied Cryptography & Telecom
Head of the group
Prof. Viktor Fischer
Phone: +33 4 77 91 57 92
E-mail: fischer(at)univ-st-etienne.fr
Objectives
The main objective of the research in the group Applied Cryptography & Telecom is to propose efficient and robust hardware architectures aimed at applied cryptography and telecom that are resistant to passive and active cryptographic attacks. Currently, the central theme of this research consist in designing architectures for Secure Embedded Systems implemented in logic devices such as FPGAs and ASICs. We are also working on efficient and secure implementations of post-quantum cryptographic schemes.
Theme Secure Embedded Systems (SES)
Scientific orientation
The research activities cover three important themes in the field of hardware architectures for applied cryptography and telecommunications: 1) Generation of true random numbers in logic devices; 2) Hardware cryptographic architectures resistant to active and passive cryptographic attacks such as side-channel attacks; 3) Secure implementations of post-quantum schemes.
1. Secure true random number generation in logic devices aimed at cryptographic applications
True random number generators (TRNG) and related subjects represent the main stream of our scientific activities and this research area is further divided into four research axes:
Identification of physical sources of randomness in logic devices and methods of randomness extraction
Methods, tools and mathematical models aimed at characterization of the sources of randomness and randomness extraction
Efficient embedded tests for on-line TRNG testing
TRNG architectures aimed at implementation in logic devices
2. Hardware cryptographic architectures with increased resistance to active and passive cryptographic attacks
Research activities of our group in this general field of applied cryptography are oriented in four particular domains:
Architectures of crypto-processors with secured key management
Proposition of new cryptographic primitives and algorithms that are intrinsically resistant to cryptographic attacks
Side-channel cryptographic attacks and counter-measures
Fault injection attacks and counter-measures.
3. Secure implementations of post-quantum schemes
Code-based and lattice-based schemes offer a post-quantum security (there are no efficient attacks using a quantum computer).
Implantation aspects of code-based and lattice-based schemes,
Proposition of new primitives for efficients implementations,
Side-channel analysis,
Theoretical aspects of exiting and new primitives.
University partners
National cooperation
Our team cooperates in the frame of several projects and contracts with main research teams in the field in France:
LIRMM Montpellier,
Télécom ParisTech,
Lab STICC Lorient,
TIMA Grenoble,
IRISA Lannion,
Université de Toulon,
Université de Limoges,
Université de Rouen,
INRIA Rocquencourt.
International cooperation
Our team has numerous publications with international partners such as:
Technical University in Kosice and Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, Slovak republic (more than 20 common publications)
TU Darmstadt (20 publications),
University Sao Paulo (2 publications),
George Mason University Fairfax, USA (1 publication),
Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany (2 publications).
Industrial partners
Our industrial partners cover small companies oriented in design and production of secured cryptographic systems, but also major companies in the field of telecommunications, microelectronics and defense:
ST Microelectronics, France,
Orange Labs, France,
DGA, France,
NETHEOS, France,
INVIA, France,
MICRONIC, Slovak republic.
Organization of conferences
Our team organizes since 2003 International workshops on Reconfigurable Cryptographic Architectures – CryptArchi . Most of these workshops were organized in cooperation with other French and foreign research laboratories:
Technical University of Kosice (Slovak republic) in 2006,
LIRMM Montpellier (France) in 2007,
IRISA Lannion (France) in 2008,
Czech Technical University in Prague (Czech republic) in 2009,
Telecom ParisTech (France) in 2010,
Ruhr University in Bochum (Germany) in 2011,
Chateau de Goutelas (France) in 2011.
CNRS, Fréjus (France) in 2011.