CASA RESEARCH LAB





Cryptanalysis and Signals Analysis

The CASA lab led by Babinkostova is focused on modern problems of cryptography, cryptanalysis and information security. Research areas include cryptography, cryptanalysis, information security and privacy. Our lab contains all necessary equipment to test the robustness of implementations against power side-channel attacks. Many research projects of the CASA lab are collaborative work with colleagues and students across several disciplines including computer science and engineering.

RESEARCH AREAS

Lightweight Cryptography
Lightweight cryptography is designed for resource-constrained devices. It requires less RAM, fewer computing resources and less power supply to resolve data security challenges of IoT sensor networks, smart grids, and cyber-physical systems. Lightweight crypto aims at providing a high level of security using the lowest computing power possible.

Side Channel Attacks
Encryption/decryption and authentication is the foundation of any embedded security and trusted computing implementation. The ciphers used to perform those critical security functions are vulnerable to compromise through side channel attacks, which are becoming more prevalent and more sophisticated.

Post-Quantum Cryptography

The recent advances in quantum technology has initiated a new class of cryptographic schemes, Post-Quantum Cryptography, which are intended to be resistant against quantum based attacks. Lattice-based schemes are considered to be resistant to quantum attacks, but also provide efficient implementation.

Homomorphic Encryption
With the wide adoption of cloud storage, it has become essential to encrypt sensitive data before moving it to the cloud to maintain privacy. Capability to delegate computation and performance of other tasks on the encrypted data without compromising confidentiality has become an inevitable and urgent practical need.

Current Students

Aparna Sankaran is a graduate student in the PhD in Computing. Her research focuses on deep learning based side-channel attacks on hardware implementations of lightweight cryptosystems.

Katie Heil is an undergraduate student majoring in mathematics. Her research focuses on the analysis of BOGI type S-boxes used in lightweight cryptography.

Past Students

William Unger completed his PhD degree in Computing - Cybersecurity Emphasis in 2022. His research was in the area of lightweight cryptography, security of industrial control-systems, and side channel attacks.

Erik Corrington completed his bachelor degree in computer science. His research focus was investigating the security of a SEL RTAC (Real Time Automation Controller) device.

Jesus Vargas was a graduate student in the Master Program of Mathematics. His master thesis was in area the algebraic structure of several types of lightweight cryptographic systems.

Antonio Garcia completed his senior thesis in mathematics in 2019. He studied Edwards curves and their application to cryptography.

Brandon Barker completed his research in the area of cryptography (BSU 2015). He investigated the security of certain USB devices when the authentication protocol is established using a version of AES and DES. His research resulted in a joint article with Michael Smith (BSU) titled Techniques to enhance security of an authentication protocol, published in the 2015 NCUR Proceedings. His research was supported by the NSF STEP grant. In 2018 he joined Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories where he works as a software engineer.

Suzanne Craig completed her honors thesis in cryptography (BSU 2016). Her research focused on algebraic structures of AES over a field of characteristic greater than two and was supported by the NSF STEP grant. Her thesis resulted in an article in the 2014 NCUR Proceedings titled A simplified AES with field characteristic 7. She is now a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics at University of Colorado – Boulder.

Nathan Schmidt completed his MSc thesis in cryptography (BSU 2017). He investigated the security of certain hash functions through the study of latin squares. He developed software tools in C and Java to efficiently generate and analyze latin squares for applications to cryptography. In 2019 he joined AmeriBen-IEC Group where he works as a senior software developer.

Cahlen Humphreys completed his research and a senior thesis in number theory (BSU 2013). His thesis research which resulted in an article in the 2013 NCUR proceedings titled “Prime numbers and the convergents of a continued fraction.” In 2015 he completed his MSc thesis in the Mathematics Department at Florida Atlantic University. His MSc thesis research is in the area of cryptanalysis – algebraic attacks on KeeLoq. In 2017 he joined zData Inc. where he works as a big data engineer.

Charles Burnell completed his senior thesis in number theory (BSU 2018). His research focused on investigation of the properties of elliptic pairs. In 2018 he joined Google where he worked as a software developer.


Contact Information
Dr. Liljana Babinkostova
Professor, Department of Mathematics
Email: liljanababinkostova@bosiestate.edu
Phone: (208) 426 - 2896