How many of you are like me – fascinated by the latest advancements in research while struggling to understand its implications on our future? If you belong to my tribe of the scientifically curious, join me on my journey of discovery as I ask the ETH Zurich researchers about what they do and why it matters… on behalf of our tribe, I will inquire about their latest findings and how they might impact our future.
Buckle up and accompany me on my journey to meet ETH’s future makers …
Do you ever worry about the encryption of your data? Should you? Or is “encryption” just a confusing term to you that is void of any meaning? Well, allow me to introduce you to Kenny Paterson – a professor of computer science at ETH Zurich who has dedicated his life to perfecting our encryption systems.
Kenny’s research area: Applied Cryptography
In simple terms I tend to think of encryption as mathematical magic that wraps our data in a complex code to prevent anyone from changing or seeing it. While encryption is the code protecting our data, cryptography is the science of researching and applying such codes in real life. In general, cryptography can be construed as the science of secure communication (including securing data at rest or under computation) with applied cryptography referring to a particular approach within that science.
What makes applied cryptography especially fascinating to me is its breath and immediate utility. In other words, Kenny’s team needs to understand the theoretical underpinnings of complex mathematics in addition to delving deeper into the behavioural science – exploring how humans use and understand cryptographic tools. Nowadays there seems to be a gap between theoretical research in cryptography and its application/understanding by software engineers. This is important because if encryption systems are sub-optimally designed, they can provide a false sense of security and put our data at risk. And that is where the applied cryptographers come into the picture. Such experts can not only bridge the understanding gap but can also scan for weak links and suggest improvements to make the existing systems more resilient. Would you have guessed that Kenny’s students’ training includes waging attacks on an encrypted system in a laboratory setting?
But how about 2040? Will applied cryptography still be relevant to our lives?
We live in a digital era marked by the omnipresence of data and its exploitation. Therefore, if you care about your privacy not being invaded and your bank account balance not being altered, you care about cryptography more than you might know. Further digitization of our everyday lives between today and 2040 is likely to reinforce the importance of cryptography and its application as the future quality of our encryption systems will dictate the degree of privacy and integrity that our data gets to enjoy. Think of all the players – be they hobby hackers, governmental agencies, or criminal actors – that might be interested in breaking encryption or other cryptographic mechanisms to pursue their goals. These goals might range from simple annoyance to material abuse or persecution.
And for the curious ones wondering about the next frontier in Kenny’s research domain, please stay tuned for the era of computation on encrypted data. How can we allow a wide range of actors to analyse our data without enabling them to see it in any shape or form? Currently, there is a series of techniques emerging in this space. Hence, a decade from now, we might be able to see a massive deployment of such tools.
Cryptography will remain an important part of the deep tissue of our digital society headed into 2040. What is more, our future is likely to be shaped by complex digital systems that only a select few will develop and understand in greater detail. In such a future, our privacy and data integrity protection will lie in the hands of experts like Kenny Paterson. And that is why Kenny is an ETH Zurich’s Future Maker!
