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	Analyzing Post-Quantum Cryptographic Primitives In The Real World

Host: Prof. Marc Langheinrich

Thursday

12.06

USI Campus EST, Room C1.03

13:45 - 14:30


	Varun Maram Cybersecurity Group at SandboxAQ

Abstract: In this talk, I'll give an overview of my research journey analyzing real-world cryptographic systems from basic primitives (e.g., public-key encryption or PKE) to advanced protocols (e.g., Secure Shell or SSH) in a post-quantum setting; we will also make a quick detour to a setting that I'd like to call the "post-post-quantum" setting. An overarching theme of my talk is the importance of analyzing cryptographic systems in an "application-centric" manner, i.e., considering system-level properties and functionalities that go beyond the usual norm.

Biography: Varun Maram is a postdoctoral fellow in the Cybersecurity Group at SandboxAQ. His current research interests lie in quantum-resistant cryptography, with an emphasis on provable post-quantum security of real-world cryptographic systems. He obtained his PhD at ETH Zurich in 2023 where he was part of the Applied Cryptography Group and supervised by Prof. Kenny Paterson. Varun's research has been recognized with best paper awards at the PKC 2023 and PKC 2024 conferences on public-key cryptography. He is also a co-submitter of "Classic McEliece", a key-establishment scheme which was in contention in the final round of NIST’s post-quantum cryptography standardization project, and is currently being considered for ISO standardization.