Laboratory of Algorithmics, Cryptology and Security (LACS)

Today, the multimedia technology has expanded to encompass most facets of our daily lives - at work, at school, at home for leisure or learning, and on the move - and it is reaching ever-widening segments of our society. The Internet, e-mails, mobile phones, etc. are already standard channels for the information society to communicate, gain access to new multimedia services, do business or learn new skills. The recent "digital revolution" and widespread access to telecommunication networks have enabled the emergence of e-commerce, and e-government. This proliferation of digital communications and the transition of social interactions into the cyberspace have raised new concerns in terms of security and trust, like: confidentiality, privacy and anonymity; data integrity; protection of intellectual property and digital rights management; threats of corporate espionage, and surveillance system (such as Echelon), etc. These issues are interdisciplinary in their essence, drawing from several fields: algorithmic number theory, cryptography, network security, signal processing, software engineering, legal issues, any many more.

In this context, the research unit LACS which is part of the Department of Computer Science focused on:

• Cryptography is the science of protecting secrets. Cryptographic protocols enable to provide secure encryption, digital signatures, and authentication between entities. Building a secure cryptographic protocol first requires to clearly specifying the security notions that must be achieved, and then building a protocol that provably achieves these notions.
• Computational Number Theory is an important tool to build secure public-key cryptosystems. Many proposals for public-key cryptosystems rely on elaborate mathematical objects that are interesting on their own.
• System and Network Security intends to stop unauthorized users (aka "intruders") from accessing any part of a computer system. Designing intrusion detection systems (IDS) will help to determine whether or not someone attempted to break into a system, if he was successful, and what he may have done.
• Information Security Management includes many topics, like integrity of information, identification of individuals, digital rights management, information risk and policy assessments.

As parts of its activities, LACS will organize a regular seminar, and an annual workshop. Of course, these events will be open to all the people interested. The research issues conducted by LACS are relevant to the natural country's interests as well: the financial place of Luxembourg or the emergence of the e-government in Luxembourg rely on confidential and trusted communications. LACS is a natural partner for these questions and concerns.