A large international event, the Non-Stop University Cryptography Olympiad CRYPTO, was successfully held from 15 to 23 October with the active participation of the NSU Cryptographic Centre.

- This year's Olympiad was the tenth anniversary, and the most public one. For both the rounds, we recorded more than 1100 registrations from 44 countries. This is a certain success. In my opinion, a significant role was played by the attraction of new coorganisers and partners who are ready to actively support and promote the event, invite students and offer interesting tasks from the industry," commented Natalia Tokareva, Chair of the Olympiad Programme Committee, Associate Professor at NSU.

The participants were offered 14 different tasks. Their topics included postquantum cryptography, hash functions, calculators, creation of new ciphers and analysis of existing ones, prime numbers, cryptographic protocols and digital signatures.

The Non-Stop University CRYPTO Olympiad is the only international cryptography Olympiad. It unites both school and university students and professionals from all over the world. Everyone can take part in the Olympiad, independently of geographical location. The official language of the Olympiad is English. The aim of the Olympiad is to attract young researchers to the solution of modern cryptography questions.

The organizers and partners of the Olympiad are the Cryptographic Centre (Novosibirsk), Novosibirsk State University, International Mathematical Centre in Akademgorodok, North-West Centre for Mathematical Research named after Sofia Kovalevskaya, University of Leuven (Belgium), Southern Federal University, Belarusian State University, Tomsk State University, Kryptonite, Demlabs and Aktiv companies.

The official results of the Olympiad will be announced in December 2023.

The 22nd International Conference SIBECRYPT "Siberian Scientific School-Seminar "Computer Security and Cryptography" named after G.P. Agibalov was held from 4 to 9 September in Barnaul.

The conference gathered about 50 cryptography and information security specialists from Moscow, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don, Kaliningrad, as well as India and Pakistan.

The delegation from Novosibirsk included 10 professors and students from Novosibirsk State University, who presented sectional and plenary reports in the fields of postquantum cryptography and cryptographic discrete functions.

It should be noted that Denis Bykov, a 2nd year MSc student of NSU, a researcher of the Mathematical Centre in Akademgorodok, became the winner of the competition of young people's reports of the conference.

SIBECRYPT is one of the leading conferences on cryptography and computer security in Russia, held annually in different Siberian cities. Its aim is to discuss fundamental mathematical problems of cryptography and information protection in computer systems and networks, exchange of scientific results on development of theoretical foundations and creation of hardware and software tools for computer security.

This year the conference was held in Barnaul with the support of the International Mathematical Centre in Akademgorodok, Tomsk State University, North-West Centre for Mathematical Research named after Sofia Kovalevskaya. Sofia Kovalevskaya Centre for M

— High scientific level and unique lecturers. This is what differentiates our summer school and arouses great interest in it from students from all over the country. There are no analogues of such a cryptographic school in Russia. We thank our coorganiser, Baltic Federal University, and personally Ekaterina Malygina, Associate Professor at BFU, for the excellent organisation, warm welcome and amazing atmosphere," - notes Natalia Tokareva, Head of the Summer School, Associate Professor at NSU.

The Summer School-Conference was supported by the Cryptographic Centre (Novosibirsk), the International Mathematical Centre in Akademgorodok and the Kovalevskaya North-West Centre for Mathematical Research. S. Kovalevskaya.

The summer school-conference with international participation was successfully held in Kaliningrad. "Cryptography and Information Security" is a traditional event organised by the Cryptographic Centre (Novosibirsk), the International Mathematical Centre in Akademgorodok and the organisers of the NSUCRYPTO International Olympiad. This year the Summer School was organised with the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.

80 students and teachers conducted scientific research in the field of cryptography. In total 20 lectures were given by leading specialists from Moscow, Taganrog, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Novosibirsk, a round table was organised, and most importantly, scientific research was conducted under the guidance of experienced cryptographers. A collection of theses was published as a result of the summer school.

Летняя школа «Криптография и информационная безопасность» – традиционное мероприятие, организуемое Новосибирским государственным университетом и Международным математическим центром. В этом году Летняя школа организуется в сотрудничестве с Балтийским федеральным университетом им. И.Канта и на его базе (Калининград). Всего на школу было подано 115 заявок. В итоге 68 студентов из Новосибирска, Калининграда, Томска, Москвы, Санкт-Петербурга, Таганрога, Екатеринбурга, Иннополиса, Хабаровска и других городов приехали на школу. Есть и международные участники – из Киргизии, Казахстана, Вьетнама.

— В этом году Летняя школа радует как географией, так и разнообразием лекций и научных проектов. Всем желаем успешной работы и научных свершений, — прокомментировала со-руководитель Летней школы, доцент БФУ Екатерина Малыгина.

В течение почти двух недель, с 7 по 17 августа, со студентами будут работать 17 преподавателей. Участников школы ждут лекции и командная работа в проектах, связанная с решением учебных и исследовательских задач в области криптографии и информационной безопасности. Одно из важнейших событий школы – круглый стол по современным проблемам криптографии. Студентов также ждут прогулки по Калининграду, необычные спортивные занятия, дружеский матч и главное событие школы – итоговая конференция по результатам работы с публикацией тезисов.

— Особое внимание школы в этом году будет уделено постквантовой криптографии. В школе принимают участие ведущие разработчики РФ в данной области, а именно – команды, непосредственно участвующие в создании стандартов в этой области. То, что нам удалось их привлечь – большой успех, — отметила руководитель Летней школы, доцент Механико-математического факультета НГУ Наталья Токарева.

Летняя школа-конференция проводится Криптографическим центром НГУ при поддержке Международного математического центра в Академгородке и Северо-Западного центра математических исследований им. С. Ковалевской.

Wednesday, 17 May, 9:00 - 10:35, room 1132 of NSU
"Basic cryptanalysis of stream ciphers"
Thursday, 18 May, 9:00 - 10:35, room 1133 of NSU
"Modern cryptanalysis of stream ciphers I"
Thursday, 25 May, 9:00 - 10:35
"Modern cryptanalysis of stream ciphers II, room 1133 of NSU"

Lectures are devoted to stream ciphers and cryptanalysis methods that can be applied to them. We will discuss the role of LFSRs (Linear Feedback Shift Registers) and NFSRs (Nonlinear Feedback Shift Registers), some ciphers based on them (e.g. GRAIN), the choice of a Boolean function, and several attacks (e.g. statistical and the cube attacks).

The Summer School-Conference "Cryptography and Information Security" is a traditional event organized by the NSU and the International Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok. This year, the Summer School is organized in cooperation with the I.Kant BFU and on its basis.

Dates and venue: August 7 - August 17, 2023, Kaliningrad.
Participation format: full-time. There is a possibility of partial financial support for the arrival and residence of nonresident participants.

Students will receive lectures, team and individual work in projects related to solving research problems in the field of cryptography and information security, sports classes. One of the most important events of the school-conference is a round table on modern problems of cryptography. The topics of the projects cover various issues of modern cryptography and information security: from methods of symmetric cryptography and cipher design to the development of modern post-quantum cryptosystems. Special attention will be paid to post-quantum cryptography at this summer school. The participation of the leading developers of the Russian Federation in this field is planned, namely, the teams directly involved at the moment in the development of the state standard of post–quantum cryptography of the Russian Federation.

University students and schoolchildren (11th grade) are invited to participate. The number of seats is limited.

Registration for the Summer School is open!
Applications are accepted until May 17, 2023.

More details on the school's website.

RUSCRYPTO is an annual scientific and practical conference dedicated to topical issues of cryptography and information security. It is a platform for communication between specialists in the field of cryptography and information security. The event is annually attended by developers and their potential clients, scientists and officials, specialists from commercial and government agencies. RusCrypto is theory and practice, presentations of new technologies and exchange of opinions.

Associate Professor of NSU, employee of the Cryptographic Center, N.N.Tokareva was invited to the RUSCRIPTO conference as an expert to organize and conduct a round table dedicated to the popularization of cryptography and involvement in the profession. The round table included presentations by representatives of MSU, MEPhI, SPbPU, FUMO IB and other organizations.

- The report of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation A.M.Shoitov on the creation of the National Technological Center for Digital Cryptography (STC CC) aroused particular interest in RUSCRIPTO. The new structure will allow for public-private cooperation to create means of cryptographic protection of information. This is a very important decision. In general, the conference program was very rich and interesting, I thank the organizers for the brilliantly conducted event, - N.N.Tokareva shares her impressions.

In the first round, students of the SUNC NSU Mikhail Baev and Egor Tens received diplomas of the third degree in the category "schoolchildren", their main rivals were schoolchildren from the UK and Singapore. NSU students were also awarded prizes in the first round in the "students" category. Konstantin Romanov (FIT NSU) received a diploma of the second degree, Viktor Panshin (MMF NSU) earned a diploma of the third degree. Students of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of NSU Georgy Zhukov and Georgy Krivtsov received honorary diplomas in this category. In addition, the graduate student of the Faculty of Information Technologies of NSU Roman Lebedev will be awarded a diploma of the second degree in the category "professionals" in the first round. He managed to bypass the representatives of Germany, Belgium and Hungary.
And we note the outstanding result of the 2022 Olympiad for NSU – in the second round, a team of students of the Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty of NSU consisting of Alexander Bakharev, Rinchin Zapanov and Denis Bykov won a first degree diploma! They were able to beat their main rivals from Romania, Vietnam and Hungary, as well as strong teams from Moscow (MEPhI). Since 2017, Novosibirsk teams have not been able to overcome the competition.
In the first round, 37 participants from 10 countries will be awarded prizes and diplomas, in the second round — 27 teams from 9 countries. A detailed list of prize winners is published on the Olympiad website, www.nsucrypto.nsu.ru.
The Olympiad is organized by the Cryptographic Center (Novosibirsk), the International Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk State University, the University of Leuven (Belgium), Tomsk State University, Belarusian State University, the Northwestern Center for Mathematical Research named after Sofia Kovalevskaya and the Kryptonite Company.

Alexander Bakharev was also awarded the A.A. Lyapunov Scholarship. 👍🏻