CWI and Radboud cryptographers win prize for New Hope algorithm

Cryptographers from CWI and Radboud University have won the ‘Internet Defense’ prize for the New Hope algorithm, together with researchers from the Turkish Ege University and the German Infineon. The prize and $100,000 were presented at the Usenix conference.

The prize is a collaboration between Facebook and Usenix, and was established in 2014 to honor researchers who ‘make a significant contribution to internet security with a working prototype’, Facebook says. This year the prize was awarded to the cryptographers behind the New Hope algorithm, with which tls should remain secure in the age of quantum computers. With their research, they have made speed gains while improving security, Facebook says.

The New Hope algorithm was recently tested by Google on connections in the Chrome browser. The company wants to run the trial with the new key exchange for about two years. There were two other finalists in the running for the prize. For example, the researchers behind the discovery of the Drown attack on sslv2 and tls had to ignore the price. The scientists behind the recently discovered flaw in the implementation of the rfc 5961 protocol in Linux also fell by the wayside.

The winners are Erdem Alkim, Léo Ducas, Thomas Pöppelmann and Peter Schwabe, from Ege University, CWI, Infineon and Radboud University respectively.