1. 26 May 2016
EPSRC
Project partner letter of support - Andrei T. Patrascu
Dear fellowship review panel,
SentryBay is a leading security company interested in cutting edge research
involving cryptography and online security. It has recently been listed in the
Cybersecurity 500 list of top companies worldwide and is a global player with
partners in Europe as well as north and south America. In this context, I was
pleased to see that Andrei Patrascu’s academic pursuits overlap with those of
our company in so many ways. His interest in the mathematics of elliptic curves
and his understanding of algebraic geometry, algebraic topology and their
connections with real life cryptographic problems convinced me that his work
will have significant impact on the field of cryptography and that the tools
developed during the time of this fellowship will be of use to the security
industry.
Practically, the cryptographic community is continuously trying to ensure that
encryption protocols in use are based on sound and unambiguous mathematical
principles. While elliptic curve based encryption protocols offer many
advantages from an implementation point of view and are considered to be
generically safe, it is often the case that we have to avoid certain elliptic curves
for which non-generic attacks exist. Andrei’s idea of searching for new pairings
capable of generating new attacks on encryption protocols would certainly
increase online security as it would allow the industry to avoid those curves
susceptible to the new attacks. On the other side, development and
implementation of pairings during past decades allowed the construction of
efficient schemes for pairing based cryptography. The new pairings developed
by Andrei for such schemes would increase the security of devices deployed in
insecure locations. Such methods would be applicable to the mobile phone
industry or to the internet of things. It would also advance the field of identity

2. based encryption where pairings involving the private key and the ciphertext are
being used in order to decipher a message. Encryption of browser data, secured
online access and data protection would definitely benefit from this type of
research.
Our company is particularly interested in scientific and technological
advancements that would provide us with new ways of avoiding potential
attacks on elliptic curve cryptography and to implement more secure identity
based encryption protocols. SentryBay developed a system for securing
individual files and items of sensitive data within the cloud. Each piece of data
is individually encrypted/uploaded and can be downloaded/decrypted and
accessed securely from any smart device. We are currently working on security
solutions for the Internet of Things, Wearable technologies, Browsing security
and many other areas where encryption is intensively employed. To understand
the mathematics behind such encryption protocols and to know what elliptic
curves may be vulnerable to potential new attacks is therefore of utmost
importance.
Considering this we strongly support Andrei’s application for this fellowship and
I am looking forward to collaborating on the ensuing research. As a contribution
to this fellowship, we are willing to host up to four meetings per year, assign
staff time and provide access to company equipment relevant for the
organization of such meetings. We are also willing to offer expert feedback on
the results obtained and some access to software relevant for the evaluation of
the mathematical tools developed.
This research is of particular importance to us. The information about the new
pairings as well as on the testing of elliptic curves against potential new attacks
is important for the cryptographic industry in general and for SentryBay in
particular. We hope to gain new insights into the problems related to elliptic
curve encryption protocols and into the pairings developed and employed
during the tests on particular elliptic curves. Particularly the practical
implementation of the resulting methods will be the focus of several meetings
during the second half of the fellowship.
We are also willing to contribute towards the public impact of this fellowship.

3. This includes the press-releases at the debut and during the fellowship as well
as the allocation of resources required for the media outreach and public
engagement.
Andrei’s ability to innovate and to link such diverse domains of research make
him the best choice for conducting a research of such great importance. It is
therefore my pleasure to strongly support Andrei Patrascu’s application for a
fellowship in this field.
Yours sincerely,
David Waterson
Chief Executive Officer