Project Description
In recent years, there has been a heated debate between privacy advocates and law enforcement officials on the necessity of end-to-end encryption. On one hand, privacy advocates argue that individual privacy is a basic right while law enforcement argues that end-to-end encryption makes it difficult for them to intercept illegal activities. Congressmen and Senators [1] have often sided with law enforcement and have called for completely abolishing encryption, without taking into account the negative impact it can have on our lives (think "mass surveillance").
Can we strike a balance? Recently, we used mathematical tools to design encryption systems that not only have strong end-to-end privacy guarantees but also provide selective access to law enforcement.
We will be working on a project to develop such encryption systems. Since we will be using nice mathematical tools, a passion for solving math problems is a must. Background in cryptography is preferred but not necessary (for example, if you have taken CS 178 offered in Spring then that is a huge plus).
[1] Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill.
Team Members
- Aashay Parab
- Anika Arora
- Zackary Glazewski
Professor and Mentors
- Prof. Prabhanjan Ananth
- Achintya Desai
Meeting Time
- Meeting with Prof. Ananth
- Wednesdays 3:30PM - 4:30PM
- Meeting with Achintya
- Tuesdays 3PM - 4PM
- ERSP meeting with central mentors (zoom for the first two weeks, in person after that)
- Chinmay: Thursdays 11:30AM - noon
- Diba: TBD
Links to Proposals and Presentation
- Proposal (first draft): link
- Proposal (after peer review): link
- Final Proposal (after instructor's feedback): link
- Final presentation: link