Preface to IACR Theory of Cryptography (TCC) 2014

TCC 2014 was held at the University of California San Diego in California, from February 24 to 26, 2014. TCC 2014 was sponsored by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). The General Chairs of the conference were Mihir Bellare and Daniele Micciancio. I would like to thank them in the name of the TCC community in general, and in the name of all of the participants of TCC 2014 in particular, for their hard work in organizing the conference.

The conference received 90 submissions, of which the Program Committee selected 30 for presentation at the conference. These proceedings consist of the revised versions of those 30 papers. The revisions were not reviewed, and the authors bear full responsibility for the contents of their papers. In addition to the regular paper presentations, TCC 2014 featured a rump session where short presentations of recent results were given, and two invited talks. The invited speakers were Russell Impagliazzo and Silvio Micali, and the program committee is very grateful to them for accepting our invitation.

I am greatly indebted to many people who contributed to the success of TCC 2014. First and foremost, I would like to thank all those who submitted their papers to TCC. The success of TCC is due mainly to your work. In addition, I would like to thank the Program Committee for all of their hard work and diligence in reviewing the submissions and choosing the program. A lot of work is involved in this process, and your service to the community is greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank all of the external reviewers who participated in the process and provided in-depth reviews of the papers that they read. In addition, I owe deep thanks to Shai Halevi and Tal Rabin who provided me with valuable advice when I needed it. The TCC program committee also used Shai's excellent web-review software, and I thank Shai for writing it and for the support he provided when needed. Finally, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the TCC steering committee for entrusting me with the task of program chair, and to Oded Goldreich for all of his support and advice over the years.

This is the 11th Theory of Cryptography Conference, and it has been my honor and pleasure to act as the program chair of TCC as it enters its second decade. A quick look at the proceedings herein suffices to appreciate the vibrant and dynamic work being carried out by the TCC community. The proceedings includes research on new and exciting topics like obfuscation, as well as basic foundational research on classic topics like zero-knowledge, secure computation, encryption, black-box separations, cryptographic coding theory and more. In addition to the fascinating research presented at TCC, the conference atmosphere is always warm and friendly, and is essentially a meeting of friends who come together to study the fundamentals of our field. I thank the entire TCC community for creating this event and for maintaining its unique and special qualities.

February 2014                         Yehuda Lindell
TCC 2014 Program Chair