EU-eCrypt FP6 NoE - Network of Excellence in Cryptology

ECRYPT is a NoE in the area of cryptology and watermarking. Cryptology is the science that studies mathematical techniques in order to provide secrecy, authenticity and related properties for digital information. Watermarking allows embedding hidden information into the digital media, such that the watermark is imperceptible and difficult to remove. Cryptology and watermarking are interdisciplinary research areas with a high strategic impact for European industry and for the society as a whole. They are a fundamental enabler for security, privacy and dependability in the Information Society for digital asset management. The ECRYPT research roadmap is motivated by the changing environment (evolving towards ambient intelligence) and threat models in which cryptology is deployed, by the gradual erosion of the computational difficulty of the mathematical problems on which cryptology is based, by the need of strong foundations in the watermarking area and by the requirements of new applications and cryptographic implementations. The main objective of ECRYPT is to ensure a durable integration of European research in both academia and industry and to maintain and strengthen the European excellence in these areas. In order to reach this goal, 32 leading players propose to integrate their research capabilities within five virtual labs focused on the following core research areas: symmetric key algorithms, public key algorithms, protocols, implementation, watermarking. Essential integration activities will include joint workshops, exchange of researchers and students, development of common tools and benchmarks and a website and forum which will be a focal point for the network and the wider cryptographic community. Spreading activities will include a training program, a substantial contribution towards standardization bodies and an active publication policy. The project team has the critical mass and breadth to address the key questions in these areas.