Ela Lee

PhD in cybersecurity. "Classical" cryptographer investigating where quantum could provide meaningful advantage. Views are my own.

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

@RHULCyberCDT @ShippLaura @nickdr92 Thanks for having me

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

@dfaranha Indeed. Take this as an opportunity to see which outlets are trustworthy for cryptography news

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

There are some media articles saying CRYSTALS-Kyber is broken, which is an exaggeration. The actual paper uses AI to exploit a side channel in masked C implementation of Kyber. Useful research area, not currently devastating as I understand it.

[IACR @IACR_News]

#ePrint Breaking a Fifth-Order Masked Implementation of CRYSTALS-Kyber by Copy-Paste: E Dubrova, K Ngo, J Gärtner https://t.co/eKP0PjtadD

[Meltem Turan @Meltem_STuran]

NIST just announced Ascon as the winner of the #NIST #lightweightcryptography project. Congratulations to the Ascon team!

[Quantinuum @QuantinuumQC]

Today we released Quantum in Pictures: a book that makes quantum computing more inclusive and accessible than ever before.
https://t.co/gOJ4FVU8yP

[Kathrin Spendier @kathrin_sp]

pyTKET bricks? A new educational resource to provide a hands-on and fun way to assemble well-known quantum circuits. They are based on the PyTKET circuit rendering tool, which offers both traditional quantum circuit design and ZX calculus design.
@QuantinuumQC @cambridgecqc

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

@anacostache_ @yayworthy That’s great news! Congratulations to you all

[Matthew Green @matthew_d_green]

Ok, so I got a chance to try out Safety Check. This is a new iOS 16 feature designed to quickly secure your phone against unwanted data sharing. It automates the old checklists I wrote (complained about) a while back.

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

If I couldn’t work from home, I’d still be on maternity leave. Instead I’ve been back (part time) since April.

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

@martinralbrecht @kclinformatics Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing your future results

[Chris Peikert @ChrisPeikert]

Wow!! This completely breaks SIDH/SIKE level-1 parameters on a single core in an hour (not even a weekend!). A monumental result. #NISTPQC

[Chris Peikert @ChrisPeikert]

@Coop_Daniels One of the few extant NIST PQC proposals—not yet selected for standardization, but advanced to the 4th round—just went from "no attack progress for ~12 years" to "totally broken."

[mjos\dwez @mjos_crypto]

That polynomial-time key search paper (ePrint 2022/948) is gone now.

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

Thanks for the training, CDT! I learned a lot and I use the things I learned every (working) day. Learning about the content of your thesis in the wider cybersecurity context is invaluable.

[RHUL Cyber CDT @RHULCyberCDT]

Congratulations to our most recent CDT graduates on this sunny summer graduation day. Feargus Pendlebury, Fernando Virdia, Ashley Fraser, Pallavi Sivakumaran, Ela Lee, Eamonn Postlethwaite & Nick Robinson, its been a pleasure and we wish you every success for your future.

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

Today I finally attended my PhD graduation, having defended my thesis back in March 2020.
Nothing puts the two year wait into perspective like bringing a baby I wasn’t pregnant with when I submitted my corrections along to the ceremony!

[Lúcás Meier @cronokirby]

I made a (light-hearted) meme about the Post Quantum Cryptography standards

[Riccardo Paccagnella @ricpacca]

We found a way to mount *remote timing* attacks on *constant-time* cryptographic code running on modern x86 processors. How is that possible? With #hertzbleed! Here is how it works (with @YingchenWang96).

https://t.co/SRUgBRQpu2

[mjos\dwez @mjos_crypto]

Back in 2004 I wanted to get into infosec consulting, so I read the book and sat the CISSP exam. (I didn't feel like paying the maintenance fees after 2010.) The CISSP course material on cryptography seemed bad even back then, let's see what the latest one is saying!

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

My point being I think there’s a limit to how useful it is to teach children to be human calculators. Maths should aim to teach problem solving. That’s what I use it for now.

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

Generalisations like this are untrue, outdated and unhelpful.
How does this mindset still exist in government?

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

Girls dislike hard maths, says education adviser
https://t.co/OUEX1fMojR

[Ela Lee @Ela_BLee]

I remember complaining to my dad when the uni decided we had to use less powerful calculators in exams. Me: “In the real world I’d have my own calculator.” Dad: “In the real world, you’ll have Google.”