Subject: [Cfrg] New co-chairs selected

From: "Eggert, Lars" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 07:23:22 +0000

Hi,

we've had about a half dozen folks volunteer for the positions; thank you all very much! David, Kevin and me felt that this gave us many good options, and so we were in the comfortable position of being able to pick folks that as a team will have deep crypto experience as well as an in depth understanding of the IETF and its processes.

In the end, we selected Kenny Paterson ([email-masked]) and Alexey Melnikov ([email-masked]) as the new chair team. As announced earlier, David will step down (thank you again, David) and Kevin will work with the two new chairs until he retires next year.

I've asked Kenny and Alexey to follow up to this email to introduce themselves to the group. I've also asked them to make a statement about where their funding is coming from, whether they have held or are holding any security clearances, and disclose any other circumstance they feel the group should be aware of, so that we have full transparency.

I'd like to again thank the other volunteers for the positions. We had a very good pool to select from, which was a very pleasant situation to be in.

Thanks,
Lars

---

From: "Paterson, Kenny" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 17:13:47 +0000

Dear CFRG,

I'm delighted to have been selected as co-chair with Alexey. I'm looking
forward to working with Alexey to make CFRG a continuing success - with
his extensive IETF experience and my connections to the scientific
community in cryptography, I think we have a shot. Indeed, my main
objective will be to increase useful engagement of the scientific
community with CFRG, so that the confidence with which CFRG gives opinions
on cryptographic matters to the rest of IRTF/IETF is as high as possible.

Lars asked me to say a bit about myself by way of introduction. Most of
the basic biographical stuff can be gleaned from: www.isg.rhul.ac.uk/~kp.
In short, I'm a cryptographer working in academia, but with industry and
consulting experience. I've also made some contributions to the analysis
of IETF security protocols like IPsec, SSH and SSL/TLS. I'm also one of
the founders of the "Real World Crypto" workshop series
(http://www.realworldcrypto.com/rwc2015). In 2011, I was programme chair
for Eurocrypt, and I am on the editorial board of the Journal of
Cryptology. 

I have received research funding from a number of sources. Most of my
funding has come from EPSRC, which is the UK equivalent of the US National
Science Foundation. (See
http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPerson.aspx?PersonId=73961 for a list.) In
the past, I received funding from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) as part
of the ITA programme (2006-2011), see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Technology_Alliance. This is an
unclassified programme with IBM as the prime contractor. I've also
received funding from the EU under the FP6 and FP7 programmes.

I am currently in receipt of funding from GCHQ. Specifically, GCHQ is
funding a PhD studentship under my supervision from 2013 to 2017 on the
topic of randomness in cryptography; in March 2014, I received a small
research grant which was spent on computation time on AWS and on hard disc
storage (for computing and storing biases in RC4/WPA). The total value of
this funding is approximately £150k. None of the research is classified,
and indeed I do not have, and have never had, any security clearances. I
also have no intention of obtaining any. I should mention that my
university has been accredited as an Academic Centre of Excellence in
CyberSecurity by GCHQ (along with more than a dozen other UK
universities); I was involved in preparing the documentation which led to
this award. At the same time as being in receipt of funding from GCHQ, my
position on the Snowden revelations is a matter of public record:
http://bristolcrypto.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/open-letter-from-uk-security-re
searchers.html.

Feel free to ask me any questions about any of the above - either on-list
or off.

Cheers,

Kenny

On 02/06/2014 08:23, "Eggert, Lars" <[email-masked]> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>we've had about a half dozen folks volunteer for the positions; thank you
>all very much! David, Kevin and me felt that this gave us many good
>options, and so we were in the comfortable position of being able to pick
>folks that as a team will have deep crypto experience as well as an in
>depth understanding of the IETF and its processes.
>
>In the end, we selected Kenny Paterson ([email-masked]) and
>Alexey Melnikov ([email-masked]) as the new chair team. As
>announced earlier, David will step down (thank you again, David) and
>Kevin will work with the two new chairs until he retires next year.
>
>I've asked Kenny and Alexey to follow up to this email to introduce
>themselves to the group. I've also asked them to make a statement about
>where their funding is coming from, whether they have held or are holding
>any security clearances, and disclose any other circumstance they feel
>the group should be aware of, so that we have full transparency.
>
>I'd like to again thank the other volunteers for the positions. We had a
>very good pool to select from, which was a very pleasant situation to be
>in.
>
>Thanks,
>Lars

---

From: Alexey Melnikov <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 19:24:20 +0100

Dear CFRG,

I'm also quite pleased to be selected as co-chair with Kenny. I am 
looking forward to helping with interactions with IETF and use my IETF 
experience to help progress work in CFRG.

Let me provide some information on my background and funding.

I received BSc degree with honors in Applied Mathematics and Computer 
Science from Moscow State University. Coincidently, I am, like Kenny, 
UK-based.

I am the author or co-author of 48 published RFCs 
<http://www.arkko.com/tools/allstats/alexeymelnikov.html>, mostly 
related to application layer security and electronic mail. Since 1998 my 
areas of interest have included email, mobile network optimizations of 
application protocols, application protocol and format design, real-time 
collaboration and security frameworks for providing authentication and 
data integrity/confidentiality.

I was an Application Area Director in IETF for 2 years. I 
co-chaired/co-chair several IETF Working Groups in Application and 
Security Areas. Recently I spend more time in the Security Area. My most 
recent IETF documents relate to MMHS (Military Message Handling System 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Message_Handling_System>) and S/MIME.

At my day job I work as a senior software engineer and project manager 
for Harrier Email Client (a general purpose email client with some 
military features such as security labels. Harrier makes use of security 
protocols such as TLS, SASL and DKIM) at Isode Limited. I used OpenSSL 
in applications and also did a couple of small modifications to it. I 
did slightly bigger modifications to Cyrus SASL. Later this year I will 
be working on a S/MIME implementation in C++.

Isode <http://www.isode.com> is a small privately owned engineering 
company (about 30 people). Isode develops software which is sold to 
military and goverment organizations, aviation industry and ISPs.

I do not have, and have never had, any security clearances. None of my 
work is classified.

If you have any questions on the above, don't hesitate to ask publicly 
or privately.

Best Regards,
Alexey