State of the Art in Applied Cryptography

The Department of Electrical Engineering-ESAT at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven regularly runs a course on the state of the art and evolution of computer security and industrial cryptography. The rst course took place in 1983, the second in 1989, and since then the course has been a biennial event. The course is intended for both researchers and practitioners from industry and government. It covers the basic principles as well as the most recent - velopments. Our own interests mean that the course emphasizes cryptography, but we also ensure that the most important topics in computer security are covered. We try to strike a good balance between basic theory and real-life - plications, between mathematical background and judicial aspects, and between recent technical developments and standardization issues. Perhaps the greatest strength of the course is the creation of an environment that enables dialogue between people from diverse professions and backgrounds. In 1993, we published the formal proceedings of the course in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series (Volume 741). Since the el d of cryptography has advanced considerably during the interim period, there is a clear need to publish a new edition. Since 1993, several excellent textbooks and handbooks on cryptology have been published and the need for introductory-level papers has decreased. The growth of the main conferences in cryptology (Eurocrypt, Crypto,and Asiacrypt) shows that interest in the eld is increasing.