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Department newsroom
IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory
conference
Dr. Malluhi and his collaborators were able to break a cryptographic algorithm that was
proposed as a candidate to become a NIST Post Quantum Cryptographic standard. It is
known that many of the cryptographic algorithms that are widely used today in our day-to-
day online interactions will no longer be secure as quantum computers are moving closer
and closer to becoming a reality. This is creating a big concern in the community as it
implies that most of online services that we heavily rely on today would collapse.
Therefore, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a major standards
organization, has recently initiated a process to establish a post-quantum resistant
standard for public-key cryptography. After process round 1, a cryptographic algorithm
called HK17 was one of the standard candidates. Dr. Malluhi and his collaborators were able to identify weaknesses in this standard
candidate and showed a method for breaking it. This significant result has been presented in France in the renowned 2019 IEEE
International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT 2019), which is the top international
conference in the area information theory.
Visit to Oman
Prof. Malluhi also participated in the Workshop on the Future of Computing Programs at Sultan Qaboos
University (SQU), Oman. The workshop was held on Oct 1, 2019. Dr. Malluhi was invited by SQU to this
event in order to offer expert opinion and recommendations regarding possible future directions for
structuring the different computing programs at SQU. Dr. Malluhi has delivered an invited talk and
participated in round-table and panel discussions regarding recent trends in computing education and the
future of computing programs.