ABU DHABI, 30th May, 2024 (WAM) -- The Technology Innovation Institute (TII) has announced the winning submissions for the TII McEliece Challenges, the UAE’s cryptography challenges that aim to enhance online security and encourage advancements in cryptographic systems.
The McEliece cryptosystem is a public key encryption scheme with a strong reputation for being resilient to cyberattacks.
As part of the challenges, cryptographers, mathematicians, innovators, research institutes, and university students were invited to validate the security of the cryptosystem to identify possible weaknesses and confirm its strength. Cryptography ensures the confidentiality of information thanks to the encryption of data, which is crucial to cybersecurity.
Participants had to solve four challenges launched by the TII, a leading global scientific research centre and the applied research pillar of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC).
The Rocco Mora from France; Lorenz Panny, assistant professor at the Technical University Munich; and Run Timerr from Sweden were the winners taking home cash prizes totalling US$22,000.
TII CEO, Dr. Najwa Aaraj, applauded the winners. She said, “By delving into the intricacies of the McEliece-based cryptosystem, we deepened our understanding of it and increased the confidence in its security.”
TII kicked off the year-long competition in May 2023, via HeroX, a crowdsourcing platform focused on problem-solving challenges. The challenges featured multiple McEliece-based cryptanalysis problems with increasing levels of difficulty exploring four different tracks: Track 1A on Theoretical Key Recovery Algorithms, Track 1B on Practical Key Recovery, and Track 2A and 2B on Message Recovery.
Three out of the four prizes were awarded, while the hardest challenge in Track 2B remained expectedly unbroken. The three prizes were given to the best judged submission in Track 1A and to the researchers who solved the most difficult instances in Track 1B and Track 2A.
The McEliece cryptosystem has become a leading choice among code-based cryptosystems for standardization by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).