A Total Break of the 3WISE Digital Signature Scheme

A new batch of ``complete and proper\u27\u27 digital signature scheme submissions has recently been published by NIST as part of its process for establishing post-quantum cryptographic standards. This note communicates an attack on the 3WISE digital signature scheme that the submitters did not wish to withdraw after NIST communicated it to them. While the 3WISE digital signature scheme is based on a collection of cubic maps which are naturally modeled as symmetric 3-tensors and 3-tensor rank is a difficult problem, the multivariate signature scheme is still vulnerable to MinRank attacks upon projection. We are able to break the NIST security level I parameters within a few seconds. Since the attack is polynomial time, there is no reparametrization resulting in a secure scheme

Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit: A Milestone in EU-Russia Relations - not just for Ukraine

The Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit on 28-29th November represents a milestone in EU relations not just with respect to the six Eastern Partnership countries (EaP: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and particularly Ukraine), but also with the EU's "strategic partner" Russia. The turbulence and numerous speculations regarding expectations about the signature of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (comprising a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement -- AA/DCFTA), as well as progress in initialling similar future agreements with Georgia and Moldova, have been escalating before the summit. The association agreements would bring EaP signatory countries closer to the EU: not really closer to EU membership, but closer to the application of various EU norms and standards (takeover of the "acquis communautaire") and -- significantly -- out of the Russian orbit, for the beginning at least symbolically. The last minute postponement of the EU-Ukraine AA/DCFTA signature announced by Ukraine's government just one week before the summit represents a serious setback for the EU. Though the EU has no "Plan B" and was stunned after Ukraine's announcement, life will continue after the summit and new initiatives will have to be started. What are the relevant issues and challenges and what is at stake? This note attempts to evaluate the consequences (economic and otherwise) of alternate decisions following the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit, reviews some of the disputed arguments and discusses selected relevant economic issues

Authorised Translations of Electronic Documents

A concept is proposed to extend authorised translations of documents to electronically signed, digital documents. Central element of the solution is an electronic seal, embodied as an XML data structure, which attests to the correctness of the translation and the authorisation of the translator. The seal contains a digital signature binding together original and translated document, thus enabling forensic inspection and therefore legal security in the appropriation of the translation. Organisational aspects of possible implementation variants of electronic authorised translations are discussed and a realisation as a stand-alone web-service is presented.Comment: In: Peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Information Security South Africa (ISSA) 2006 From Insight to Foresight Conference, 5 to 7 July 2006, Sandton, South Afric

Metabolomic profiling of macrophages determines the discrete metabolomic signature and metabolomic interactome triggered by polarising immune stimuli

Priming and activating immune stimuli have profound effects on macrophages, however, studies generally evaluate stimuli in isolation rather than in combination. In this study we have investigated the effects of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory stimuli either alone or in combination on macrophage metabolism. These stimuli include host factors such as IFNγ and ovalbumin-immunoglobulin immune complexes, or pathogen factors such as LPS. Untargeted LC-MS based metabolomics provided an in-depth profile of the macrophage metabolome, and revealed specific changes in metabolite abundance upon either individual stimuli or combined stimuli. Here, by factoring in an interaction term in the linear model, we define the metabolome interactome. This approach allowed us to determine whether stimuli interact in a synergistic or antagonistic manner. In conclusion this study demonstrates a robust approach to interrogate immune-metabolism, especially systems that model host-pathogen interactions

Group theory in cryptography

This paper is a guide for the pure mathematician who would like to know more about cryptography based on group theory. The paper gives a brief overview of the subject, and provides pointers to good textbooks, key research papers and recent survey papers in the area.Comment: 25 pages References updated, and a few extra references added. Minor typographical changes. To appear in Proceedings of Groups St Andrews 2009 in Bath, U