Public Lecture: 50 years stagnation on proving cryptosystems truly secure

Thời gian: 14:00 đến 15:00 Ngày 26/05/2026

Địa điểm: VIASM, 161 Huynh Thuc Khang Street, Lang Ward, Hanoi

Speaker: Prof. Yvo Desmedt, The University of Texas at Dallas, USA

Abstract: Since the invention of public key cryptography in 1976, a lot of mathematics has been used in the area of cryptography. However, no proof has ever been given that secure public key cryptography is possible at all. Moreover, no attempt has been made to develop the tools to prove or disprove the conjecture
of their existence. Thousands, of papers have been published based on unproven assumptions. This is in sharp contrast to the approach that was used to prove Fermat's Last Theorem. New mathematics was developed, in particular elliptic curves, which eventually lead to the desired proof.
The 50 years anniversary of the invention of public key cryptography is the right time to reflect back on what has been achieved, and what not, in these
50 years. Giving a survey of the area is impossible. Therefore the focus will be on what is used in the practical world, which is only a small fraction of all
the work. We will also briefly explain the concept of unconditional security.
To better understand the importance of mathematics in the analysis of cryptosystems, we briefly explain the breaking of the Merkle-Hellman basic knapsack scheme, which was the fastest public key cryptosystem in the 1970's.

Short Bio:

Yvo Desmedt received his Ph.D. (Summa cum Laude) from the University of Leuven, Belgium (1984). At present he is Jonsson Distinguished Professor at
the University of Texas at Dallas. He has held visiting appointments at AIST (Japan), Macquarie University (Australia), Technion (Israel), Tokyo Institute
of Technology (Japan), Universite de Montreal (Canada), University of Karlsruhe (Germany), etc. He is the Editor-in-chief of IET Information Security. He was program chair of Crypto 1994, the ACM workshop on Scientific Aspects of Cyber Terrorism 2002, PKC 2003, ICITS 2007, ISC 2013, and co-program chair of CANS 2005. He was an invited speaker at conferences and workshop in 5 continents. He has authored over 200 refereed papers, of which 182 listed on DBLP. He is a Fellow of the International Association of Cryptologic Research (IACR), since 2010, and since 2016 Foreign Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.

Registration: Registration is free but compulsory.  
Please register via link: https://forms.gle/eZcYD4B22qKsNp1m6

Mode of Participation: Hybrid (online participation is available only for participants from outside Hanoi area)

Language: English

Deadline for Registration: May 25, 2026

Contact: Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy, nqhuy@viasm.edu.vn