Random small Hamming weight products with applications to cryptography

There are many cryptographic constructions in which one uses a random power or multiple of an element in a group or a ring. We describe a fast method to compute random powers and multiples in certain important situations including powers in the Galois field F2n , multiples on Koblitz elliptic curves, and multiples in NTRU convolution polynomial rings. The underlying idea is to form a random exponent or multiplier as a product of factors, each of which has low Hamming weight when expanded as a sum of powers of some fast operation.