Internet users can now use www.google.com instead of www.google.com, protecting their text searches against espionage and sabotage by network attackers. However, Google still does not support encryption for high-volume data such as images and maps.
Other sites encrypt even less. More than 99% of Internet web pages and Internet mail messages remain unencrypted. Furthermore, most encryption used on the Internet is at a surprisingly low security level. For example, in June 2010, https://paypal.com was still using 1024-bit RSA, a key size easily breakable by the Conficker botnet. Government recommendations to move to at least 2048-bit RSA have triggered widespread objections.
The underlying problem is that cryptography is too slow. Even when the necessary cryptographic software has been written and installed, users are often forced to disable or limit the software, or compromise security, so that their computers are not overloaded.
This project directly addresses this problem by making cryptography faster---without compromising security. The research has a broad vertical scope spanning high-speed engineering of high-speed software, CPU-specific optimization, algorithm analysis and design, analysis and design of cryptographic functions, and optimization of cryptographic Internet protocols.
