A commitment scheme is a cryptographic tool that allows one to commit to a hidden value, with the option to open it later at requested places without revealing the secret itself. Commitment schemes have important applications in zero-knowledge proofs and secure multi-party computation, just to name a few. This survey introduces a few multivariate polynomial commitment schemes that are built from a variety of mathematical structures. We study how Orion is constructed using hash functions; Dory, Bulletproofs, and Vampire using the inner-product argument; Signatures of Correct Computation using polynomial factoring; DARK and Dew using groups of unknown order; and Orion+ using a CP-SNARK. For each protocol, we prove its completeness and state its security assumptions.
Lattice-based cryptography is one of the most promising candidates for designing post-quantum cryptographic algorithms that resist emerging quantum computing attacks. The recent NIST PQC standardization process is nearing its completion, with practical lattice-based algorithms for basic cryptographic functionalities (namely digital signature and public-key encryption) selected for standardization in the near future. However, practical lattice-based solutions for more advanced privacy-preserving protocols, in particular, Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), have only emerged recently and are an active area of research. We discuss some recent developments in design and analysis of practical lattice-based post-quantum ZKPs and their applications. In particular, we review some challenges that arise in designing ZKPs in the lattice setting and some recent progress on efficient lattice-based Schnorr-like proofs for important relations, such as binary/range proofs, one-out-of-many proofs and rounding proofs [1, 2, 4]. We discuss applications and optimization of such proof systems as building blocks for practical advanced cryptographic protocols such as ring signatures and balance proofs for privacy-preserving cryptocurrency payment protocols [2, 3]. We also discuss our recent work on succinct designated-verifier ZKPs (DV-ZKSNARKS) for verifying correctness of general delegated computations [5].
Many existing anonymous parking payment schemes lack high efficiency and flexibility. For instance, the calculation and communication costs involved in payment may linearly increase with the payment amount. In this paper, we propose an anonymous payment system (dubbed AnoPay) for vehicle parking, which leverages updatable attribute-based anonymous credentials and efficient zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) to achieve user anonymity and constant overhead for parking fee payment. To further improve the efficiency, we design a secure parking fee aggregation protocol based on linear homomorphic encryption to aggregate parking transactions, where the amount of each parking transaction is hidden and the privacy of the parking lot in terms of its revenue is guaranteed. AnoPay achieves both unlinkability and accountability, malicious payments can be efficiently traced when it is necessary. We provide a security model and rigorous proof for each security property of AnoPay. Extensive experiments and comparisons demonstrate the efficiency and practicality of the system.
Motivated by new applications such as secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC), Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), and Zero-Knowledge proofs (ZK), many MPC-, FHE- and ZK-friendly symmetric-key primitives that minimize the< number of multiplications over Fp for a large prime p have been recently proposed in the literature. These symmetric primitives are usually defined via invertible functions, including (i) Feistel and Lai-Massey schemes and (ii) SPN constructions instantiated with invertible non-linear S-Boxes. However, the âinvertibilityâ property is actually never required in any of the mentioned applications.In this paper, we discuss the possibility to set up MPC-/FHE-/ZK-friendly symmetric primitives instantiated with non-invertible bounded surjective functions. In contrast to one-to-one functions, each output of a l-bounded surjective function admits at most l pre-images. The simplest example is the square map x â x2 over Fp for a prime p â„ 3, which is (obviously) 2-bounded surjective. When working over Fnp for n â„ 2, we set up bounded surjective functions by re-considering the recent results proposed by Grassi, Onofri, Pedicini and Sozzi at FSE/ToSC 2022 as starting points. Given a quadratic local map F : Fmp â Fp for m â {1, 2, 3}, they proved that the shift-invariant non-linear function over Fnp defined as SF (x0, x1, . . . , xnâ1) = y0â„y1â„ . . . â„ynâ1 where yi := F(xi, xi+1) is never invertible for any n â„ 2 · m â 1. Here, we prove that âą the quadratic function F : Fmp â Fp for m â {1, 2} that minimizes the probability of having a collision for SF over Fnp is of the form F(x0, x1) = x20 + x1 (or equivalent);âą the function SF over Fnp defined as before via F(x0, x1) = x20 +x1 (or equivalent) is 2n-bounded surjective.As concrete applications, we propose modified versions of the MPC-friendly schemes MiMC, HadesMiMC, and (partially of) Hydra, and of the FHE-friendly schemes Masta, Pasta, and Rubato. By instantiating them with the bounded surjective quadratic functions proposed in this paper, we are able to improve the security and/or the performances in the target applications/protocols.
Tal Derei, Benjamin Aulenbach, Victor Carolino, Caleb Geren · 8 authors
Zero-Knowledge proofs are a cryptographic technique to reveal knowledge of information without revealing the information itself, thus enabling systems optimally to mix privacy and transparency, and, where needed, regulatability. Application domains include health and other enterprise data, financial systems such as central-bank digital currencies, and performance enhancement in blockchain systems. The challenge of zero-knowledge proofs is that, although they are computationally easy to verify, they are computationally hard to produce. This paper examines the scalability limits of leading zero-knowledge algorithms and addresses the use of parallel architectures to meet performance demands of applications.
We present a simple quantum interactive proof (QIP) protocol using the quantum state teleportation (QST) and quantum energy teleportation (QET) protocols. QET is a technique that allows a receiver at a distance to extract the local energy by local operations and classical communication (LOCC), using the energy injected by the supplier as collateral. QET works for any local Hamiltonian with entanglement and, for our study, it is important that getting the ground state of a generic local Hamiltonian is quantum Merlin Arthur (QMA)-hard. The key motivations behind employing QET for these purposes are clarified. Firstly, in cases where a prover possesses the correct state and executes the appropriate operations, the verifier can effectively validate the presence of negative energy with a high probability (Completeness). Failure to select the appropriate operators or an incorrect state renders the verifier incapable of observing negative energy (Soundness). Importantly, the verifier solely observes a single qubit from the prover's transmitted state, while remaining oblivious to the prover's Hamiltonian and state (Zero-knowledge). Furthermore, the analysis is extended to distributed quantum interactive proofs, where we propose multiple solutions for the verification of each player's measurement. The complexity class of our protocol in the most general case belongs to QIP(3)=PSPACE, hence it provides a secure quantum authentication scheme that can be implemented in small quantum communication devices. It is straightforward to extend our protocol to Quantum Multi-Prover Interactive Proof (QMIP) systems, where the complexity is expected to be more powerful (PSPACE$\subset$QMIP=NEXPTIME). In our case, all provers share the ground state entanglement, hence it should belong to a more powerful complexity class QMIP$^*$.
Sandip Das, A. Lahiri, Soumen Nandi, Sagnik Sen · 5 authors
An $(n,m)$-graph is characterised by having $n$ types of arcs and $m$ types of edges. A homomorphism of an $(n,m)$-graph $G$ to an $(n,m)$-graph $H$, is a vertex mapping that preserves adjacency, direction, and type. The $(n,m)$-chromatic number of $G$, denoted by $Ï_{n,m}(G)$, is the minimum value of $|V(H)|$ such that there exists a homomorphism of $G$ to $H$. The theory of homomorphisms of $(n,m)$-graphs have connections with graph theoretic concepts like harmonious coloring, nowhere-zero flows; with other mathematical topics like binary predicate logic, Coxeter groups; and has application to the Query Evaluation Problem (QEP) in graph database. In this article, we show that the arboricity of $G$ is bounded by a function of $Ï_{n,m}(G)$ but not the other way around. Additionally, we show that the acyclic chromatic number of $G$ is bounded by a function of $Ï_{n,m}(G)$, a result already known in the reverse direction. Furthermore, we prove that the $(n,m)$-chromatic number for the family of graphs with a maximum average degree less than $2+ \frac{2}{4(2n+m)-1}$, including the subfamily of planar graphs with girth at least $8(2n+m)$, equals $2(2n+m)+1$. This improves upon previous findings, which proved the $(n,m)$-chromatic number for planar graphs with girth at least $10(2n+m)-4$ is $2(2n+m)+1$. It is established that the $(n,m)$-chromatic number for the family $\mathcal{T}_2$ of partial $2$-trees is both bounded below and above by quadratic functions of $(2n+m)$, with the lower bound being tight when $(2n+m)=2$. We prove $14 \leq Ï_{(0,3)}(\mathcal{T}_2) \leq 15$ and $14 \leq Ï_{(1,1)}(\mathcal{T}_2) \leq 21$ which improves both known lower bounds and the former upper bound. Moreover, for the latter upper bound, to the best of our knowledge we provide the first theoretical proof.
Summary Every transaction is made public and verified by a third party, and the transparency of blockchain applications leads to privacy leaks. Everyone can access the transaction, making it easier for network analysis to identify the user's identity, which is a major problem with the blockchain. Financial institutions have become hesitant to adopt blockchain technology; as a result, preventing its spread. To confirm that encryption and security are maintained for transactions in the blockchain, this research introduces a zeroâknowledge proof (ZKP) based transaction validation scheme. To increase the security of blockchain applications, the proposed latticeâbased blind ring signature (LBRS) scheme integrates blind and ring signatures and is applied to sensitive data. The data are encrypted using this encryption scheme before being stored with the transactional information in the blocks. The encrypted data is then stored in the blocks, which users can retrieve after verification. The encrypted data is then stored in blocks, which users can retrieve after verification. A verification scheme based on the ZKP is used to prevent unauthorized access and changes to the data. The proposed LBRS scheme meets the security analysis requirement. The performance of an LBRS scheme is compared to other relevant models in terms of execution time, encryption time, and decryption time. Overall, the results are more encouraging and reassuring than other relevant works of interest. Finally, this model provides better computational security and satisfies the requirements like correctness and security analysis.
The rapid digital revolution in recent decades has resulted in an overwhelming amount of information, particularly in the realm of modern education systems and related materials. This phenomenon, often referred to as information overload, necessitates the development of educational systems that can effectively search, classify, and categorize this vast amount of available information. Of utmost importance for such educational information systems is the safeguarding of personal data, which refers to information that can identify an individual or their family. School records, for example, contain various types of personal data such as the individualâs name, address, contact details, disciplinary history, as well as their grades and progress checks. Even if individuals choose to make this data public, it remains inherently personal. Another category of data involves more sensitive topics such as student biometrics (e.g. fingerprints, photographs), religious beliefs, health information (e.g. allergies), or dietary restrictions, which may imply religious or health-related aspects. Processing data in this category can pose risks to individuals; hence, strict rules and appropriate consent are necessary to ensure their protection. To address these challenges, this research paper proposes a zero-knowledge proof intelligent recommendation system designed to protect studentsâ data privacy in the digital age. The proposed method incorporates an Intelligent Recommendation System (IRS) that utilizes an optimized version of the Matrix Factorization technique, calculated as an Eulerian Walk chart. Furthermore, the Schnorr Zero-Knowledge Proof format, based on the discrete logarithm problem, ensures the privacy of personal data during message exchange between educational entities.
Abstract The rapid advancement of quantum computing has sparked a considerable increase in research attention to quantum technologies. These advances span fundamental theoretical inquiries into quantum information and the exploration of diverse applications arising from this evolving quantum computing paradigm. The scope of the related research is notably diverse. This paper consolidates and presents quantum computing research related to the financial sector. The finance applications considered in this study include portfolio optimization, fraud detection, and Monte Carlo methods for derivative pricing and risk calculation. In addition, we provide a comprehensive analysis of quantum computingâs applications and effects on blockchain technologies, particularly in relation to cryptocurrencies, which are central to financial technology research. As discussed in this study, quantum computing applications in finance are based on fundamental quantum physics principles and key quantum algorithms. This review aims to bridge the research gap between quantum computing and finance. We adopt a two-fold methodology, involving an analysis of quantum algorithms , followed by a discussion of their applications in specific financial contexts. Our study is based on an extensive review of online academic databases, search tools, online journal repositories, and whitepapers from 1952 to 2023, including CiteSeerX, DBLP, ResearchGate, Semantic Scholar, and scientific conference publications. We present state-of-the-art findings at the intersection of finance and quantum technology and highlight open research questions that will be valuable for industry practitioners and academicians as they shape future research agendas.
With natural language processing as an important research direction in deep learning, the problems of text similarity calculation, natural language inference, question and answer systems, and information retrieval can be regarded as text matching applications for different data and scenarios. Secure matching computation of text string patterns can solve the privacy protection problem in the fields of biological sequence analysis, keyword search, and database query. In this paper, we propose an Intelligent Semi-Honest System (ISHS) for secret matching against malicious adversaries. Firstly, a secure computation protocol based on the semi-honest model is designed for the secret matching of text strings, which adopts a new digital encoding method and an ECC encryption algorithm and can provide a solution for honest participants. The text string matching protocol under the malicious model which uses the cut-and-choose method and zero-knowledge proof is designed for resisting malicious behaviors that may be committed by malicious participants in the semi-honest protocol. The correctness and security of the protocol are analyzed, which is more efficient and has practical value compared with the existing algorithms. The secure text matching has important engineering applications.
Protecting the confidentiality of private data and using it for useful collaboration have long been at odds. Modern cryptography is bridging this gap through rapid growth in secure protocols such as multi-party computation, fully-homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proofs. However, even with provable indistinguishability or zero-knowledgeness, confidentiality loss from leakage inherent to the functionality may partially or even completely compromise secret values without ever falsifying proofs of security. In this work, we describe McFIL, an algorithmic approach and accompanying software implementation which automatically quantifies intrinsic leakage for a given functionality. Extending and generalizing the Chosen-Ciphertext attack framework of Beck et al. with a practical heuristic, our approach not only quantifies but maximizes functionality-inherent leakage using Maximum Model Counting within a SAT solver. As a result, McFIL automatically derives approximately-optimal adversary inputs that, when used in secure protocols, maximize information leakage of private values.
Zero-knowledge proof is a critical cryptographic primitive. Its most practical type, called zero-knowledge Succinct Non-interactive ARgument of Knowledge (zkSNARK), has been deployed in various privacy-preserving applications such as cryptocurrencies and verifiable machine learning. Unfortunately, zkSNARK like Groth16 has a high overhead on its proof generation step, which consists of several time-consuming operations, including large-scale matrix-vector multiplication (MUL), number-theoretic transform (NTT), and multi-scalar multiplication (MSM). Therefore, this paper presents cuZK, an efficient GPU implementation of zkSNARK with the following three techniques to achieve high performance. First, we propose a new parallel MSM algorithm. This MSM algorithm achieves nearly perfect linear speedup over the Pippenger algorithm, a well-known serial MSM algorithm. Second, we parallelize the MUL operation. Along with our self-designed MSM scheme and well-studied NTT scheme, cuZK achieves the parallelization of all operations in the proof generation step. Third, cuZK reduces the latency overhead caused by CPU-GPU data transfer by 1) reducing redundant data transfer and 2) overlapping data transfer and device computation. The evaluation results show that our MSM module provides over 2.08x (up to 2.94x) speedup versus the state-of-the-art GPU implementation. cuZK achieves over 2.65x (up to 4.86x) speedup on standard benchmarks and 2.18Ă speedup on a GPU-accelerated cryptocurrency application, Filecoin.
The increased demand for data availability in every industry is driving individuals to exchange and store data on centralized platforms such as clouds so that the intended audience may access it. To facilitate data exchange and storage in the medical industry, organizations and patients are building cloud platforms. However, the most pressing issue that everyone faces is data protection and security. Here, we describe many techniques that are available to protect the system and meet the requirement for data privacy preservation in the medical industry. Some algorithms are Zero-Knowledge Proof, Principal Component Analysis and Random Projection, Generative Adversarial Networks, blockchain and cloud computing, Quasi-Identifier Recognition, Q-learning Neural Network, digital signature, and others.
Muhammad Umar Majigi, Ismaila Idris, Shafiâi Muhammad Abdulhamid, Andrew A. Uduimoh
The possibility of implementing advanced applications, such as improved driving safety, has increased with the rapid development of vehicular telematics, and existing vehicular services have been enriched through data sharing and analysis between vehicles. This research uses smart contracts and consortium blockchain zero knowledge proof to secure data sharing and storage in vehicular networks. The results indicate that, for message sizes (m), both data_ experiments _2 and 1 produce ciphertext of the same size 157 bits, with the exception of 'gnfuv-temp-exp1-55d487b85b-5g2xh,' which generates ciphertext of 156 bits with the lowest decryption time of 26,865ms and a small decrease in encryption time between 28,620ms and 28,162ms. the proposed model validation shows that the model performed better than the Advanced encryption standard in terms of ciphertext size, encryption time and decryption time in comparison and it satisfies the good and robust blockchain-based zero knowledge proof model for secure data sharing and storage for distributed VANET. The scheme achieves high levels of security while operating with reasonable efficiency, reliability and availability according to numerical results.
Knowledge is power. Updates in any field are essential to know for oneâs professional growth in life. In Medical science, scientist and clinicians have to be updated on recent developments. Continuing Medical Education (CME) is one of the ways to update. Different programs like CME, seminars, webinars, symposiums, Continuous Professional Development (CPD), etc., are conducted from time to time. When multiple people come to one platform for sharing their knowledge with experience with other delegates, it takes the form of a conference. After attending the conference, clinicians not only improve their knowledge but also get credit points. Various state medical councils in India have made mandatory requirements of credit points for medical registration renewal. Not only in India but also many other countries have made it mandatory.[1-3] Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations and groups organized conferences in offline or physical modes but after the pandemic, most CMEs, seminars, and conferences are being conducted and converted from offline to online mode.[4] After around a 2 to 2.5 years of gap, the government has permitted offline conferences but now doctors incline to attend in online mode because online conference participation does not have distance, health issues, or cost like factors. They can attend their duties simultaneously and saves commuting times also.[5] Many of us attended the CME or conferences during the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic eras. We also thought of conducting a conference in a hybrid mode. We hence write what is required to arrange a basic conference successfully. Last year we organized one national level conference. We share our experience of how to arrange a conference, which can help all to understand the basics behind arranging one such event successfully. Concept: We discuss what you should have in your mind the thinking about organizing the Conference. Before going full throttle, better to conduct an all-India feedback among faculty members and post-graduate students to decide the theme of the conference and sessions for pre-conference workshops. Then, the organizers can shortlist the best theme. A reward also needs to be given to the winner who suggested the best theme during the conference because arranging a conference is a tedious thing. The planning takes a long-time and needs full concentration for many days to months.[6] Plan: Once you have a concept in mind, you can start planning for the conference. Finalizing the mode of the conference is a key thing nowadays (Online/Offline/Hybrid). Making a checklist serves a lot. Note down everything from beginning to end including the smallest to biggest things in your list. This list keeps on upgrading till the last day. We suggest that you have to think about what you expected as a delegate or participant from the organizer in any of the past conferences that you attended. Take advice from your senior faculties as well as juniors from the same as well as other departments to conduct the conference. The date of the conference is a separate entity. Choose the date after a minimum of 6 months, so you can get enough time for preparation. Most of the conferences are held on weekends and it is around 2-3 days. Select the date as per your convenience but weekends are suggested to get a good number of participants/delegates. Also, while finalizing a date, we check the availability of the auditoriums, clashing of any other programs, examinations, festivals, etc.[2] Committee: Organizing a conference is complete teamwork. Start preparing the team, which is known as the organizing team. The team should have a chairperson, organizing secretary, advisor, and other committee members. Chairperson and organizing secretary are key persons and to ease their work you have to appoint their deputy too. This will help in smoothening things during their absence of them. Choose the person in a particular committee based on the skills they are good at. Like good conversation, skilled in computer and internet work, good managerial skills, well in decorative things and many more. Arrangements of accommodation, travel, hospitality, etc., can be preferably given to the male members of the department. Scientific committee work should be given to the senior members of the team. The Finance committee looks after the financial aspects, audits, budgeting, etc., After the organizing committee builds up, the real work begins.[7,8] Funds: Whenever any event is organized, the first and biggest challenge is finance. Funds are needed for purchase, rent, gift/prize, mementos/honorarium for speakers, helpers/labor, travel costs, online platform costs, etc., You can get a sponsorship from the companies (who have a stake in the topic being discussed), from management, and also from registration of the delegates. Making a good budget for the conference goes a long way in the successful management of funds. Keep more than 15% or more funds for miscellaneous or contingency plans, because you will have things that you have not planned earlier.[8] Session and speaker finalization: For good participation and interest generation, a good theme (ideally a current topic) is essential. That will determine the topics for sessions. Selection of speakers, if possible, should have a mix of international, national, and local level speakers from that field. Avoid repeating or intersecting topics in the same type of session in your conference that you read or attend in the near past. Inviting the speakers on appropriate topics is also important. If the speakers are not comfortable with the topic, either you have to choose the topic or you have to shuffle the topics and speakers too. Sometimes all the speakers may not be available for all day or slot timings of conferences. Arrange the sessions as per the convenience of the speakers, but in a manner that the logical flow is maintained.[9] Registration fees and their category: Registration fee is one of the ways to decrease the requirements of external funds. This will support reducing the financial burden of a conference, but it also comes with its share of challenges. You have to set the fees, which are appropriate to cover a certain proportion of expenses but should not be too high to discourage participation. You can set the slab of the fees in three ways: early bird registration (least fees), normal registration (moderate), and spot registration (higher fees) as per the key dates. Another one is fees for consultant/faculty, student/resident, paramedical staff, and member/non-member category type. Variations in these fees structure will help you to get good enthusiastic delegates for the conference. Opening a new bank account in the name of the conference helps you to manage all the expense accountability records in one place. The GST bills, PAN cards of the bank account, etc., are necessary for smooth transactions and auditing purposes. Taking the help of a chartered accountant is necessary for financial guidance.[9] Applying for credit points in medical council: Many medical councils are encouraging associations to organize CME and CPD for clinician knowledge upgradation. They support CME by approving the credit points to delegates, which are also of interest to delegates. Appropriate efforts should be taken well beforehand to get your conference approved for credit points. You have to fulfill the criteria for the credit point as per the individual medical council requirements. For details, you have to visit and read the guidelines of the individual medical councilâs website. The approval of credit points needs finance. The amount may vary based on credit points approved and also upon the number of delegates that have registered for the conference.[2] First announcement and brochure: Next step is information to the target delegates about the event. You can prepare the first announcement pamphlet if your complete brochure needs more time to design. The first announcement gives the first impression about the events. It is usually a teaser. So, reveal only a few interesting aspects of the conference here. It should be attractive, and informative as well as should make delegates eager to know full details of events. A new logo on the name/theme of the conference gives a unique identity. After finalizing the speakers, schedule, registration fees, and brochure design, distribution of the brochure to all stakeholders should be done. A unique e-mail ID with the name of the conference should be made which should be used for the conversation and queries related to conference matters. Give complete information regarding your key dates, registration methods, registration fees, and their categories, speakers, sessions, contact details (of organizing secretary), etc., in a brochure that can make delegates clear about your events. You can also keep details of some nearby tourist places to visit in the brochures.[7] It is worthwhile to conduct some quiz or online assignment for postgraduates and senior residents in online mode related to theme of the conference to keep them reminded of the upcoming conference. Advertisement with an invitation: First announcement or final brochure should be distributed to the medical fraternity and important dignitaries of the institute. You cannot get good numbers of delegates at your conference without reaching them. Before social networking platforms, it was difficult to reach the delegates personally but now it is relatively easy to reach people. Post a brochure on various social networking platforms and groups to spread information about your events in other medical fraternities. A humble invitation message with the brochure attracts the delegates to attend the events. Stationary printing: Apart from the information brochure, many more things are there you may have to print. Banners, delegates, speakers, and resource personâs badges with the string, each category certificates, various informative sign boards, note pads with the name of events, and many more things required to be printed. Venue arrangements: If you are organizing a virtual conference, not much worry about the venue is there, but if you are organizing a physical or hybrid conference, you have to take specific caution about the venue. The size of the hall or auditorium, registration area, welcome kit distribution area, a place for parking, stall for exhibition, poster/oral presentation hall, a dedicated area for breakfast/tea and lunch, dedicated seating arrangement for guests and speakers, and many other things have to be kept in mind. You have to manage all the things without making hurdles to other workplaces of the institute and also have to satisfy the delegates.[10] Food arrangement: Food variety and quality play one the major attractions for the delegates. A not too heavy breakfast, a working lunch, tea at least twice, and sometimes dinners or banquets needs to arranged in the conference. Food arrangements should be verified and confirmed at least before one day of events. Food items should reach to specific place a minimum of 30 minutes before the schedule which can give time to caterers to decorate and serve food on time. 2-3 designated persons should be moved around to take care of guests and speakers during the break and food time. A spread and portion size should be meticulously planned, taking into account the palate of all regions of people and also taking into account local flavors. Adequate time should be allotted to the dining time because a lot of interaction between people takes place at this time.[7] Audio/Visual planning: Audio-visual facility is one major area that needs to focus on properly, especially when you are organizing virtual or hybrid events. Good resolution of the speakerâs PowerPoint slides, clear voice with good audio transmission quality, good network connection for online delegates, and live interaction between online and offline delegates and speakers. A professional team needs to handle all these things. A dry run needs to be done a day or two before the actual event.[11] For virtual conference presentations, participants can be encouraged to share their recorded video presentations to address Internet-related issues and time management during presentation. Stage rehearsal: Stage etiquette and performance are also important. The selection of a master of ceremony, and script writing is an integral part. Coordination between anchors and other stage managers needs to be smoothened. Lamp lighting and inauguration ceremony should be rehearsed at least 2-3 times before the event which can make everyone confident on the event days. Welcoming the guest and speakers, anchoring the whole event, facilitating, and felicitation guests and speakers before and after sessions, delivering bouquets, mementos, and certificates to guests and speakers, and vote of thanks and the valedictory session should be finalized earlier. Rehearsals can make the whole event will go smoothly on the main day.[12] Abstract submission and result notification: One of the corollary events that take place in paper and poster presentations. The organizing team can call for papers and include them in competitions. Various institutes and places clinicians and students want to share their research work with others via conference. Organizers invite abstracts for the papers, posters, or both before the conference. Dates of submission, result notification, and paper/poster submission dates for presentation have to be announced well in advance with the brochure. The scientific committee and judges have to be decided beforehand for the abstract selection/rejection and judging the paper/poster presentation in the events. On the final day, the place/mode of presentation and AV aids need to be arranged. Format and criteria for judging need to be established well in advance.[11,13] Registration verification: In the information brochure, the link for registration and payment is given. But verification of the registration information with the account statement should be done to avoid financial problems in the future. You have to dedicate 1-2 persons for verifying those details and give confirmation to the delegates about registration via email, phone call, or message. You can set autoreply in the registration form or email but still you have to check it once to avoid any future problems. Miscellaneous: The day before the conference is usually very hectic. All last-moment preparations, checks, etc., go on. Preparing the delegates, speakers, and resource personsâ badges, welcome kit/folder preparation, sign board/banner sticking, stage arrangements, decoration of the venue, and other things going on. Have a good sleep at night.[6] On the day of the conference: On the day of the event all members have to do what they have been assigned. No work is small or less. Organizing committees have a big task to organize and all members have to fulfill their roles either in their work on stage or anywhere else. If each member does their best, no one can stop your event to be successful. Spot registration facility: People assigned to the registration counter should arrive early along with all delegate bags, batches, and signature/attendance forms. Turnout should be impressive as they are the face of the event. Some organizer keeps the spot registration facility. You can keep it but we suggest, donât keep it unless a lot of spots are vacant because it is extra work, starting from registration to certificate distribution.[9] If you have in-house speakers, you do not have to worry about being on time session starting. If your speakers are coming only for session time, try to take confirmation and arrange transportation before the session time. They should reach the venue at least 30 minutes prior, so they can get time to ready for the sessions. You have to schedule the questionâanswer session at the end of each lecture or session. But try to manage the time limit to avoid delay for the next lecture or session.[7] Conducting an Oral/Poster session: If in your conference, you inviting the abstract for either paper, posters, or both, you have to arrange the time slot with the venue for the presentation. You also have to coordinate with the participants about their time slots and share links for presentations. You have to invite the judges for judging the presentation. After completion of the presentation, have to collect the scores from judges and compile them for prize announcements.[7] Last-moment hurdles: All events may have been completed without any hurdles. Even those hurdles will make our events more memorable for us. Some accidental events like speaker illness, late supply of material, electricity and Internet problems, some environmental/weather-related situations, and other things can create problems at the last moment, think about those during the event planning to avoid trouble on the event day.[7] Untoward incidents on the event day: Sometimes it may fail or fall even after perfect arrangements and rehearsal. Donât panic on the event day, even after some mismanagement. Try to make it normal to maintain your team membersâ morale for successful event completion. Collecting the attendance and feedback from offline and online delegates: To engage the delegates with sessions, speakers can ask the question to delegates during the session. Organizers can take attendance on a paper sheet for physical delegates while collecting online feedback responses from all delegates to be sure of attendance. You can improve your event management, after evaluating the delegates and guest feedback.[7] After the completion of all lectures and valedictory sessions, the conference is almost complete. Delegates will leave the venue, but this is not the end of your work. You also have a lot of work which is known as post-conference work. Post-conference work: The certificate is proof of attendance for delegates and participants. In a physical conference, you can distribute the certificate at the end of the last session but for the virtual or hybrid conference, you have to send the delegates, speakers, and participants certificates to their email id. If you donât have good IT support, you will suffer to distribute them. you also have to announce the prize winnersâ names and distribute certificates with prize gifts, if you had the slot for poster/paper presentations. You also have to return the material to the supplier in the same condition which you received. Complete the task as per your checklist to avoid any troubles in the future.[14] After completion of the above work, prepare the list and make the brief reports of the conference. You have to prepare the reports with the delegate list as per the requirement of institutional management, state medical council, National Medical council, and other regulatory body requirements with their suggested formats. You also have to send the thanks email/letter to the speakers, sponsors, and institutional management team to support you and your team in organizing the event. Keep all the reports records along with the event photographs, videos, speakers/delegatesâ testimonials, presentations of lectures, feedback forms, etc. Future conference planning: After organizing one successful event, you can get a good experience for the future. You can plan the next event after a month, a year, or at your You can improve your work after evaluating feedback We that this will help all future event organizers to organize the conference. We are not to cover all the of organizing in one but we important things. from event is a new So, start from one day you will be successful in the future. support and sponsorship of interest are no of
Handong Cui, Kwan Yin Chan, Tsz Hon Yuen, Xin Kang · 5 authors
Abstract In most threshold Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) signatures using additively homomorphic encryption, the zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs related to the ciphertext or the message space are the bottleneck in terms of bandwidth as well as computation time. In this paper, we propose a compact ZK proof for relations related to the CastagnosâLaguillaumie (CL) encryption, which is 33% shorter and 29% faster than the existing work in PKC 2021. We also give new ZK proofs for relations related to homomorphic operations over the CL ciphertext. These new ZK proofs are useful to construct a bandwidth-efficient universal composable-secure threshold ECDSA without compromising the proactive security and the non-interactivity. In particular, we lowered the communication and computation cost of the key refresh algorithm in the Paillier-based counterpart from $O(n^3)$ to $O(n^2)$. Considering a 5-signer setting, the bandwidth is better than the Paillier-based counterpart for up to 99, 95 and 35% for key generation, key refreshment and pre-signing, respectively.
Awaneesh Kumar Yadav, An Braeken, Mika Ylianttila, Madhusanka Liyanage
The metaverse, which consists of several universes called verses, is predicted to be the Internet of the future. Recently, this idea has received a lot of discussions, but not enough attention has been paid to the security concerns of these virtual worlds. Primarily when the user and platform server communicate with each other and share sensitive information using the public channel, any attacker can capture the message and can perform various types of attacks such as privacy attack, violation of perfect forward secrecy, impersonation attack, ephemeral secret leakage attack and traceability attack. Therefore, there is impelling need to design an authentication protocol for the metaverse environment that can secure the communication between the user and the platform server. Taking this into account, we designed a zero-knowledge proof authentication protocol based on blockchain for the metaverse environment. The security of the designed protocol is verified through the Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic, Scyther tool, and Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tool. The outcome of the security verification demonstrates that the designed metaverse authentication protocol mitigates all the attacks mentioned above. Moreover, we evaluated the performance of the designed metaverse authentication protocol in terms of computational, communication, storage costs, and energy consumption and compared it with existing metaverse authentication protocols, showing good results taking into account the additional security strength.
As the significance of blockchain innovation grows and the focus on scalability intensifies, rollup technology has emerged as a promising approach to tackle these scalability concerns. Nonetheless, rollups encounter restrictions when interacting with other rollups, leading to diminished throughput, increased latency, higher fees, and a complex user experience in transactions between rollups. In this paper, we put forth a novel system that employs batch settlement techniques to augment the efficiency of transfers between rollups. Our proposed system comprises a settlement rollup responsible for batch settling transfers among rollups and a smart contract structure that carries out the settlements. Notably, we utilize a zero-knowledge proof algorithm to guarantee the computational integrity of the settlement rollup while ensuring security through Ethereum smart contracts for proof verification and settlement execution. By implementing this approach, the proposed system can effectively and securely execute asset transfers between rollups, ultimately improving their scalability and usability. Consequently, our research provides a fresh perspective on resolving the challenges of throughput, latency, and fees associated with transfer systems.
Due to the exponential growth of IoT devices across diverse applications, it has become essential to secure edge devices against various hardware attacks, such as tampering and cloning. A tampered device with a hardware Trojan can bypass the security measures implemented through the software layers. One of the primary ways to verify the authenticity of a device is by using physically unclonable functions (PUFs) as a unique device fingerprint. During authentication, the PUF response from the edge device is transferred securely and compared with the stored response. This requires a secure communication setup between the edge device and the central server. The fingerprint must also be stored on a server for response matching. However, the potential compromise of the central server will result in the leak of all secret information of the edge devices, and adversaries can exploit it to gain unauthorized access to the IoT network. In this paper, we propose an efficient, secure, and on-demand communication protocol using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) that allow the prover to provide evidence of its secret without revealing that to the verifier. The edge device, acting as the prover, convinces the central server, the verifier, of the unique PUF response stored inside the device without needing the actual storage of PUF responses on the server. The non-interactive characteristic of zk-SNARK, a widely used ZKP protocol in many popular cryptocurrencies such as Zcash, offers better optimization to authentication frequency, communication bandwidth between device and server, and protection of device-specific secret, all of which contribute to constructing our proposed device authentication framework.
Open access
2 source records
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
A generalized scheme of remote electronic voice based on homomorphic encryption is considered. Two methods of protecting the voting system from the threat from the voter, consisting in incorrect filling of the ballot by the voter, are investigated. Both methods are based on the algorithms of âzero-knowledge proofâ. Evaluations of the complexity of calculations in the formation of proof of the correctness of filling in the ballot by the voter and Evaluations of the complexity of verification of the proof by the controlling party are obtained. A comparative analysis of the complexity of the implementation of both methods has shown that the method based on the proof based on the equality of logarithms has less complexity of calculations on the voter's side compared to the method based on the mixing of votes. At the same time, the second method (the method of mixing votes) requires 1.67 times less calculations in the blockchain, which becomes a significant factor in choosing the second method in favor of a large number of voters.
Open access
Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
Cryptography and Data Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Xin Liu, Weitong Chen, Naixue Xiong, Dan Luo · 6 authors
Private set intersection (PSI) is a valuable technique with various practical applications, including secure matching of communication packets in the Internet of Things. However, most of the currently available two-party PSI protocols are based on the oblivious transfer (OT) protocol, which is computationally expensive and results in significant communication overhead. In this paper, we propose a new coding method to design a two-party PSI protocol under the semi-honest model. We analyze possible malicious attacks and then develop a PSI protocol under the malicious model using the Paillier cryptosystem, cut-and-choose, zero-knowledge proof, and other cryptographic tools. By adopting the real/ideal model paradigm, we prove the protocolâs security under the malicious model, which is more efficient compared to the existing related schemes.
Jonathan Heiss, Tahir Oegel, Mehran Shakeri, Stefan Tai
<p>In face of the ongoing climate change, both reduction and offsetting of carbon emissions are critical. To this end, accurate, reliable emission data, and service-oriented architectures for processing the data are needed. Current carbon accounting practices, however, are often error-prone, costly, and time-consuming. Even in digital monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems, the employment of single, trusted verification bodies inhibits transparent, fine-granular, and verifiable accounting on product instance-level in high-throughput supply chains. We propose Verifiable Carbon Accounting (VCA) as a novel accounting approach that leverages authenticity and zero-knowledge proofs in service-oriented architectures for creating non-disclosing emission reports that are peer-to-peer verifiable on blockchains. VCA builds upon and extends both conventional and digital MRV systems but ensures the confidentiality of business emission data and calculations while allowing for peer-to-peer transparency and verifiability. We introduce the concept and demonstrate VCA application for accounting product carbon footprints (PCFs) in supply chains. We present a proof-of-concept technical system design and implementation and discuss experimental findings, deriving both insights on VCA practicability and next steps. Overall, we show how VCA advances the state of art in carbon accounting in and beyond supply chains, and how VCA can serve as the basis for next-generation, accurate carbon accounting.</p>
Access control data will continue to be exposed to the threat of privacy leakage even if blockchain technology currently offers a new solution for the security and privacy of the internet of things (IoT). However, its usability and privacy are not completely leveraged. This paper first discusses the IoT and blockchain technology and then examines each technology's structural models in order to address the issue of information security and privacy protection for the global organization IoT based on blockchain. Second, the information security and privacy guarantee system based on blockchain is built with ZKP and TEE at its heart after problems with zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) and trusted execution environment (TEE) in information security guarantee based on blockchain are investigated. By comparing the simulation trials, the proposed system's viability is finally confirmed. The results demonstrate that the suggested algorithm's evidence generation time is 352 ms when it reaches the experiment's highest node 28, which is clearly faster than previous techniques.