Seminar • Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP) • How to Limit, Spread, and Eliminate Trust

Please note: This seminar will take place in DC 1304.

Lior Rotem, Postdoctoral Scholar
Applied Cryptography Group, Stanford University

These are exciting times in cryptography, where foundational technological shifts are introducing new security challenges and demanding novel cryptographic solutions. In this talk, I will focus on one such paradigm shift: the ongoing effort to restructure trust on the internet, in response to its increasing centralization.

Every day, we entrust a handful of service providers with sensitive aspects of our lives — our private information, personal communications, financial transactions, and much more. Such centralization has far-reaching consequences for our privacy and autonomy, and it creates significant security risks, as information can be — and is indeed often — stolen, mishandled, and misused.

I will present a cryptographic perspective on the recent efforts to address these challenges and rethink how trust is structured on the internet. I will highlight recent advancements in cryptography aimed at reducing the need for centralized trust without sacrificing the benefits it brings with it, including new developments in threshold cryptography and timed-release cryptography.

Bio: Lior Rotem is a postdoctoral scholar in the Applied Cryptography Group at Stanford University, hosted by Prof. Dan Boneh. He obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2022.

Lior’s research bridges real-world cryptographic applications with foundational principles and tools. His work has been featured at top cryptography conferences, such as CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, and FC. He is the recipient of distinguished fellowships and awards, including the Adams Doctoral Fellowship, the Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Protocol Labs Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Simons Society of Fellows Junior Fellowship, and the Hebrew University’s Excellent Dissertation  Award.