ECRYPT: The Cryptographic Research Challenges for the Next Decade

In the past thirty years, cryptology has evolved from a secret art to a modern science. Weaker algorithms and algorithms with short keys are disappearing, political controls of cryptography have been reduced, and secure cryptography is becoming more and more a commodity. Moreover, implementations are being becoming more secure as well. This progress may lead to the belief that the cryptography problem is “solved.” However, this article discusses some of the challenging problems ahead in the area of cryptographic algorithms and protocols. We also explain how the ECRYPT Network of Excellence (www.ecrypt.eu.org) tries to address some of the challenges by bringing together 250 European researchers in the area of cryptology and the related area of watermarking.