IACR Fast Software Encrytion 2003, Preface

Fast Software Encryption is now a ten-year-old workshop on symmetric cryptography, including the design and cryptanalysis of block and stream ciphers, as well as hash functions. The first FSE workshop was held in Cambridge in 1993, followed by Leuven in 1994, Cambridge in 1996, Haifa in 1997, Paris in 1998, Rome in 1999, New York in 2000, Yokohama in 2001, and Leuven in 2002.

This Fast Software Encryption workshop, FSE 2003, was held February 24--26, 2003 in Lund, Sweden. The workshop was sponsored by IACR (International Association for Cryptologic Research) and organized by the General Chair Ben Smeets in cooperation with the Department of Information Technology, Lund University.

This year a total of 71 papers were submitted to FSE 2003. After a two month reviewing process, 27 papers were accepted for presentation at the workshop. In addition, we were fortunate to have in the program an invited talk by James L. Massey.

The selection of papers was a difficult and challenging work. Each submission was refereed by at least three reviewers. I would like to thank the program committee members, who all did an excellent job. In addition, I gratefully acknowledge the help of a number of colleagues who provided reviews for the program committee. They are: Kazumaro Aoki, Alex Biryukov, Christophe De Cannière, Nicolas Courtois, Jean-Charles Faugère, Rob Johnson, Pascal Junod, Joseph Lano, Marine Minier, Elisabeth Oswald, Haavard Raddum, Markku-Juhani O. Saarinen.

The local arrangements for the workshop was managed by a committee consisting of Patrik Ekdahl, Lena Månsson and Laila Lembke. I would like to thank them all for their hard work. Finally, we are grateful for the financial support for the workshop provided by Business Security, Ericsson Mobile Platforms, and RSA Security.

August 2003            Thomas Johansson