Alex Biryukov

Nothing digital is true

Backup:

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

We are hiring for PhD and postdoc postions in symmetric cryptography.

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

Magic Pot: Cryptanalysis of full AIM2 in the standard and related-/reused-key settings using new elimination framework (Alex Biryukov, Pablo García Fernández,
Aleksei Udovenko
) https://t.co/mdhRLoamFq

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

Algorithmic Toolkit for Linearization of S-boxes (Alex Biryukov, Philip Tureček, Aleksei Udovenko) https://t.co/nP5rwE4ZQG

[Grant Sanderson @3blue1brown]

With this lineup of speakers, this promises to be very interesting.

[Following Hadrian @carolemadge]

#WorldPoetryDay📜 Central medallion of the Vichten Mosaic depicting Calliope, the Muse of heroic or epic poetry, and Homer. Dated to around AD 240.

National Museum of History and Art, Luxembourg.

[Justin Thaler @SuccinctJT]

13/ A key point: for years to come, bugs and implementation attacks (side-channels, fault injection) will be larger risks than CRQCs. This applies to SNARKs, signature aggregation schemes, and even signatures themselves. Invest in audits, fuzzing, and formal methods.

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

Fantomasking scheme

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

Fear always sells well.

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

@JohGroLux Could be, but looks strange. I was also surprised that the forthcoming edition is the 14th but in DBLP there are only 5 listed.

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

Stumbled upon some interesting stuff about FSE/ToSC: https://t.co/kUq47azfNJ Actually came to check the ranking of something else: WCC (Workshop on Coding and Cryptography), but I didn't find it. Help would be appreciated.

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

I guess this is right when aimed at own personal development, however when aimed externally beware of "idiots with initiative".

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

Agency > Intelligence

I had this intuitively wrong for decades, I think due to a pervasive cultural veneration of intelligence, various entertainment/media, obsession with IQ etc. Agency is significantly more powerful and significantly more scarce. Are you hiring for agency? Are we educating for agency? Are you acting as if you had 10X agency?

Grok explanation is ~close:

“Agency, as a personality trait, refers to an individual's capacity to take initiative, make decisions, and exert control over their actions and environment. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive—someone with high agency doesn’t just let life happen to them; they shape it. Think of it as a blend of self-efficacy, determination, and a sense of ownership over one’s path.

People with strong agency tend to set goals and pursue them with confidence, even in the face of obstacles. They’re the type to say, “I’ll figure it out,” and then actually do it. On the flip side, someone low in agency might feel more like a passenger in their own life, waiting for external forces—like luck, other people, or circumstances—to dictate what happens next.

It’s not quite the same as assertiveness or ambition, though it can overlap. Agency is quieter, more internal—it’s the belief that you *can* act, paired with the will to follow through. Psychologists often tie it to concepts like locus of control: high-agency folks lean toward an internal locus, feeling they steer their fate, while low-agency folks might lean external, seeing life as something that happens *to* them.”

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

I am wondering why PQCrypto is not in here or in Google's security conference ranking list: https://t.co/mh4mOk2WHq

[Mostafa Rohaninejad @MostafaRohani]

1/n
I’m really excited to share that our @OpenAI reasoning system got a perfect score of 12/12 during the 2025 ICPC World Finals, the premier collegiate programming competition where top university teams from around the world solve complex algorithmic problems. This would have placed it first among all human participants. 🥇🥇

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

"It was a special performance just for this publication, because he (the dog) understands the importance of evidence-based science."

[Steve Weis @sweis]

Quantum factoring paper of the year: https://t.co/zu50I6weCO

[Yajin (Andy) Zhou @yajinzhou]

Join us at DeFi’25: Workshop on Decentralized Finance & Security, Co-located with ACM CCS 2025 on October 17, 2025.

Submission deadline: July 21, 2025 (AoE)

Thanks to our incredible program committee & chairs for making this happen:
@yaish_aviv @christoftorres @alexcryptan @chendaLiu @PulpSpy @jgorzny @0xlf_ @manv_sc @pszalach @mysteryfigure @KaihuaQIN @flotschorsch @zzzihaoli @masserova @dmoroz @ObadiaAlex @chiachih_wu @VeroCEG @KushalBabel @0xFanZhang @lzhou1110 @lzhou1110 @chunghaocrypto

…and to our steering committee:

@TheWattenhofer @dawnsongtweets @HatforceSec @Daeinar

Learn more & submit: https://t.co/jMVbWmmeZT

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

CBT workshop deadline extended until 30 June 2025 (AoE) https://t.co/3rZFI45W1r

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

Interesting interview with Tao, especially on AI-assisted theorem proving and Human mathematicians vs AI
https://t.co/4mVL5isExi

[Lex Fridman @lexfridman]

Here's my conversation with Terence Tao, one of the greatest mathematicians in history.

We talk about the hardest problems in mathematics & physics, and how AI might help us humans to solve them. This conversation was a huge honor for me. I can't quite put it into words, but once again I'm grateful for whatever simulation code resulted in me having the life I do 🙏

To further confirm simulation, podcast length accidentally turned out to be 3:14 (pi=3.141592). But it's not 3:14:15, because the simulation code has some bugs 🤣

Podcast is here on X in full, and is up everywhere else (see comment).

Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:49 - First hard problem
6:16 - Navier–Stokes singularity
26:26 - Game of life
33:01 - Infinity
38:07 - Math vs Physics
44:26 - Nature of reality
1:07:09 - Theory of everything
1:13:10 - General relativity
1:16:37 - Solving difficult problems
1:20:01 - AI-assisted theorem proving
1:32:51 - Lean programming language
1:42:51 - DeepMind's AlphaProof
1:47:45 - Human mathematicians vs AI
1:57:37 - AI winning the Fields Medal
2:04:47 - Grigori Perelman
2:17:30 - Twin Prime Conjecture
2:34:04 - Collatz conjecture
2:40:50 - P = NP
2:43:43 - Fields Medal
2:51:18 - Andrew Wiles and Fermat's Last Theorem
2:55:16 - Productivity
2:57:55 - Advice for young people
3:06:17 - The greatest mathematician of all time

[Gareth Harney @OptimoPrincipi]

The Greeks just loved their word-search puzzles!

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

@TomerAshur Always :)

[Alex Biryukov @alexcryptan]

In cryptanalysis never say never.

[JP Aumasson @veorq]

ChaCha8 will never be broken in a meaningful way (= a way that reduces the security of any real system)

[ but academics might say it's broken if there's an attack in 2^200 "operations" and 2^150 "memory" requiring chosen nonces ]