Crypto & Security Stuffs

Hi, welcome to my research page. I am a Staff Researcher at MIMOS Berhad, Malaysia, a government research and development centre. I was previously

a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer System and Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya (March 2018 until Feb 2022), and
a Staff Researcher at MIMOS Berhad (2010 to 2018).

I received my Bachelor of Science (Computer) in 2004 from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and PhD from Queensland University of Technology, Australia in 2010.

My main research interests are in the area of symmetric cryptography (authenticated encryption, block cipher). I am also interested in application security, cryptographic protocols, digital identity, blockchain and other areas of information security.

In brief, I

am one of the General Co-Chairs of the Conference on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (CHES) 2025 which will be held in Kuala Lumpur in September 2025
am co-organising the 2nd MSCR Cryptography School in September 2024
am the Deputy President of the Malaysian Society for Cryptology Research (MSCR), 2021-2022, 2023-2024
am a member of the Committee for the Development and Implementation of the National Evaluation and Certification of Trusted Cryptographic Products, National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA), since Dec 2022
am a Program Committee of the ACNS Workshop on Automated Methods and Data-driven Techniques in Symmetric-key Cryptanalysis (ADSC): ADSC 2023, ADSC 2024
co-organised the first MSCR Cryptography School in December 2021
was one of the Academic Advisory members of the Academic Council of Malaysia Cyber Consumer Association (MCCA), Dec 2020–Nov 2022
am a co-designer of the Round 1 candidate CiliPadi lightweight authenticated encryption submitted to the NIST Lightweight Cryptography project
was a member of the Focus Group for MySEAL, 2016-2020
am a member of the Malaysian Society for Cryptology Research (MSCR), since 2015
was appointed by MOSTI as an expert panel reviewer for the application of MOSTI's R&D funds, 2012-2018
am a member of the Working Group on Cryptography and Security Mechanism (Malaysia), which is a mirror of ISO/IEC JTC1 / SC27 / WG2 since 2010
am a member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) 2008, 2011, 2017-current
have been involved in several projects related to cryptography. The projects were funded by different grants such as MoHE's Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ERGS) and Prototype Development Research Grant Scheme (PRGS); MOSTI's Science Fund; MIMOS' RMK-10 fund; and TNB R&D fund.
have given numerous talks related to cryptography at UPM (2011, 2015), Uniten (2012, 2014), IIUM (2013), UiTM Shah Alam (2012), and the Selmer Centre, University of Bergen (2008)
attended Mycrypt 2005, FSE 2008*, Asiacrypt 2008, AISC 2009*, Inscrypt 2009*, Asiacrypt 2011, RWC 2014, Mycrypt 2016, ICMC 2017, FSE 2020^, CHES 2020^, and CHES 2023 (* means I also presented a paper, ^ means attended virtually)