PARIS - 05 May 2017: At the EUROCRYPT 2017 conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientist Dr. Jan Camenisch was recognized by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) as a Fellow for his contributions to the theory and practice of privacy-preserving protocols and impact on government policy and industry.

 

 

Dr. Jan Camenisch, cryptographer and data privacy scientist at IBM Research hold a a piece of the IBM identity Mixer algorithm. (Credit: IBM Research)

Camenisch is a leading scientist in the area of privacy and cryptography. He holds 127 patents and has published more than 120 widely cited papers.

In 2013 Camenisch was awarded a prestigious five-year, 2.4 million EURO European Research Council (ERC) grant to develop cryptographic keys to enable users to securely store and retrieve online data based on a single human-memorizable password using biometrics and hardware tokens. The grant also will develop technologies to enable users and cloud hosts to perform useful operations on encrypted data without needing to decrypt the data, keeping it safe at all times.

Camenisch is the co-inventor of Identity Mixer, a unique suite of cryptographic protocols known as a "zero-knowledge proof", which enables a user to authenticate online without divulging any personal data. For instance, they could access a gaming site by proving that they are of age without revealing their birthdate or name. Since no personally identifiable data is exchanged with such authentication, companies do not have the burden of protecting and securing this data, and users no longer have the risk of their data being exposed to malicious third parties.

Working with his colleagues in IBM Research, Camenisch is currently bringing the privacy capabilities of Identity Mixer to the IBM Blockchain for applications ranging from financial and medical transactions to supply chain management for advanced privacy and confidentiality.

Camenisch joined IBM in 1999 and has a PhD in computer science from the ETH Zurich. In 2013 he was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for contributions to privacy-enhancing cryptographic protocols and has obtained a number of other prestigious awards in the past such as the 2013 IEEE Computer Society Technical Award and the 2010 ACM SIGSAC Outstanding Innovation Award.

He is currently based at IBM's research lab in Zurich, Switzerland. Follow him @JanCamenisch.

More information about IBM's security and privacy research is available at: https://ibm.co/2p4acgi