Carlos Cid

DESCRIBE PHOTO
Carlos Cid
Professor (Adjunct)
PhD in Mathematics, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil, 1999
BSc in Mathematics, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil, 1994
carlos.cid

Carlos Cid was awarded his PhD in Mathematics (in the area of combinatorial group theory) in 1999 at the Universidade de Brasília, Brazil. He moved to Europe in early 2000, to take on a post-doctoral researcher position at RWTH-Aachen, Germany. In Aachen he worked on applications of symbolic computation methods for solving systems of partial differential equations. In 2001 Carlos joined a network security startup in Dublin, Ireland, as a software engineer, where he stayed for 2.5 years.

His background and experience eventually led him to work in the area of security and cryptography. Carlos spent almost two decades in the Information Security Group at Royal Holloway University of London: he joined in 2003 as a post-doctoral researcher, and left in February 2022 as a full professor. He was the founding director of Royal Holloway’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security, and held several teaching, research and administrative roles during his time at the university.

In May 2022 he became the director of Simula UiB, a small independent research institute in cryptography and information theory in Bergen, Norway. Since April 2022 he is also an adjunct professor at OIST, where he leads the Applied Cryptography Unit.

Carlos is an experienced researcher and educator in cyber security. As a mathematician and cryptographer, his research has traditionally focused on applying algebraic techniques to symmetric- and public-key cryptanalysis. More recently he has also been working on quantum/post-quantum cryptography and secure computation. Finally, he has also an interest in applications of economics to cyber security, eg applying game-theoretic techniques to study cyber security problems.

Carlos is part of the submission team of Classic McEliece (following its merge with NTS-KEM), a code-based cryptographic scheme selected as a 4th-round finalist to NIST’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Project. He previously served in the selection committees of the CAESAR and eSTREAM cryptographic competitions, and was the general and programme co-chair of FSE 2014, held in London, and SAC 2018 in Calgary. He is a co-author of the book “Algebraic Aspects of the Advanced Encryption Standard”.

Professional Experience

  • Director, Simula UiB, Bergen, Norway, May 2022– present
  • Adjunct Professor, OIST, Japan, April 2022– present
  • Professor in Information Security, Royal Holloway, University of London, Oct 2010 – Feb 2022
  • EPSRC Academic Fellow, Royal Holloway, University of London, Oct 2005 – Sep 2010
  • Post-doctoral research assistant, Royal Holloway, University of London, Oct 2003 – Sep 2005
  • Software engineer, AEP Systems, Dublin, Ireland, Feb 2001 – Sep 2003
  • Post-doctoral research assistant, RWTH-Aachen, Germany, Feb 2000 – Jan 2001

Awards

  • NICT Guest Researcher award (for a 3-month visit to Kyushu University), Nov 2017
  • Best paper award (with co-author G. Procter) at FSE 2013, Singapore, Mar 2013
  • 5-year EPSRC Academic Fellowship, UK, Oct 2005

Select Publications

  • Lydia Garms, Taofiq K. Paraïso, Neil Hanley, Ayesha Khalid, Ciara Rafferty, James Grant, James Newman, Andrew J. Shields, Carlos Cid, and Maire O’Neill. “Experimental Integration of Quantum Key Distribution and Post-Quantum Cryptography in a Hybrid Quantum-Safe Cryptosystem”. Advanced Quantum Technologies, 2024, Wiley.
  • Martin Brain, Carlos Cid, Rachel Player, Wrenna Robson. “Verifying Classic McEliece: Examining the Role of Formal Methods in Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardisation”. Code-Based Cryptography. CBCrypto 2022. LNCS13839, pages 21-36, Springer, 2023.
  • Carlos Cid, Lorenzo Grassi, Aldo Gunsing , Reinhard Lüftenegger, Christian Rechberger, Markus Schofnegger. “Influence of the Linear Layer on the Algebraic Degree in SP-Networks”. IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology, Vol 2022 (1), pages 110-137, Mar 2022.
  • Carlos Cid, John Petter Indrøy, Håvard Raddum. “FASTA - a stream cipher for fast FHE evaluation”. Topics in Cryptology - CT-RSA 2022. LNCS13161, pages 451-483, Springer, 2022.
  • Carlos Cid, Akinori Hosoyamada, Yunwen Liu, Siang Meng Sim. “Quantum Cryptanalysis on Contracting Feistel Structures and Observation on Related-Key Settings”. Proceedings of INDOCRYPT 2020, LNCS 12578, pages 373-394, Springer 2020.
  • Martin R. Albrecht, Carlos Cid, Lorenzo Grassi, Dmitry Khovratovich, Reinhard Lüftenegger, Christian Rechberger, Markus Schofnegger. “Algebraic Cryptanalysis of STARK-Friendly Designs: Application to MARVELlous and MiMC”. Proceedings of ASIACRYPT 2019 - 25th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Cryptology and Information Security, Kobe, Japan, Dec 8-12, 2019, Part III. LNCS 11923, pages 371-397, Springer 2019.
  • Carlos Cid, T. Huang, T. Peyrin, Y. Sasaki, L. Song. “Boomerang Connectivity Table: A New Cryptanalysis Tool”. Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2018. LNCS 10821, pages 683–714. Springer Heidelberg, 2018.
  • Alex Davidson, Carlos Cid. “An Efficient Toolkit for Computing Private Set Operations”. Proceedings of ACISP 2017, Part II. LNCS 10343, pages 261–278, Auckland, New Zealand, 3-5 July 2017.
  • M. H. R. Khouzani, Piotr Mardziel, Carlos Cid, Mudhakar Srivatsa. “Picking vs. Guessing Secrets: A Game-Theoretic Analysis”. IEEE 28th Computer Security Foundations Symposium, CSF 2015, pages 243–257, Verona, Italy Jul 2015. IEEE (2015).
  • G. Procter, Carlos Cid. “On Weak Keys and Forgery Attacks Against Polynomial-Based MAC Schemes”. Journal of Cryptology, Vol 28 (4), pages 769–795 (2015).
  • M.R. Albrecht, Carlos Cid, J-C. Faugère, R. Fitzpatrick, L. Perret. “On the complexity of the BKW algorithm on LWE”. Designs, Codes and Cryptography, Vol. 74, Number 2, pages 325–354, February 2015.
  • M.H.R. Khouzani, Viet Pham, Carlos Cid. “Strategic Discovery and Sharing of Vulnerabilities in Competitive Environments”. Proceedings of GameSec 2014 – Fifth Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security, LNCS 8840, pages 59-78, Los Angeles – USA, Nov 2014. Springer-Verlag.
  • Seung Geol Choi, Jonathan Katz, Ranjit Kumaresan, Carlos Cid. “Multi-Client Non-Interactive Verifiable Computation”. Proceedings of TCC 2013 – 10th Theory of Cryptography Conference, LNCS 7785, pages 499-518, Tokyo, Japan, Mar 2013. Springer-Verlag.
  • Carlos Cid, Sean Murphy, Matthew Robshaw. “Algebraic Aspects of the Advanced Encryption Standard”, Springer, 2006.