In this talk, Freeman will present the basics of code-based cryptography, and will introduce the necessary background information to understand the digital signature he recently co-authored CROSS. This scheme is currently being considered for standardization by NIST.

• Friday September 5th @ 4pm in CMC 120: basics of linear codes, McEliece cryptosystem, Niederreiter cryptosystem.
• Friday September 12th @ 4pm in CMC 120: Equivalence of codes, Zero Knowledge proofs, CROSS.

In this talk, Alexandra will introduce the different variants of the Code Equivalence Problem (permutation CE, signed PCE, Linear CE), and show the various reductions between them. She will also show reductions between the Code Equivalence Problem and the Graph Isomorphism problem, as well as the Lattice Isomorphism Problem. She will introduce cryptosystems based on the Code Equivalence Problem, and the Lattice Isomorphism Problem, and she will discuss their security. 

•  Friday September 26th at 4pm in CMC 120: Introduction of the different variants of the Code Equivalence Problem, and the reductions between them. (Video)
• Friday October 3rd at 4pm in CMC 120: Cryptosystems based on the Code Equivalence Problem (LESS) and on the Lattice Isomorphism Problem (HAWK). 

In this talk, Wissam and J.-F. will present the basics of isogenies between elliptic curves over finite fields. The hardness of computing isogenies will be discussed, as well as the hardness of computing isogenies between two given curves. Finally, we will review the various constructions of isogeny-based cryptosystems. 

• Friday October 24th @4pm in CMC 120: definition of isogenies. Case of supersingular curve. Properties of the isogeny graph (Wissam). 
• Friday October 31st @4pm in CMC120: cryptosystems based on isogenies: hash function, SIDH, CSIDH, SQIsign (J.-F.). 

Anthony and Tefjol will present the basics of classical and quantum Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes. 

• Friday November 14th @4pm in CMC120: classical LDPC codes (Anthony).
• Friday November 21st @4pm in CMC120: quantum error correcting codes, Quantum LDPC codes (Tefjol).

In this talk, Aaram will introduce the generic group model, and talk about generic algorithms (those algorithms agnostic to specific group encodings used) and generic lower bounds of various group-based problems including the discrete logarithm problem.  He will also talk about quantum generic optimality of Shor’s algorithm for DLP.

• Friday December 5th @4pm in CMC120: Generic group model, proving hardness in GGM, DLP and its variants.
• Friday December 12th @4pm in CMC120: Shor’s quantum algorithm for DLP, and its optimality.