International Association
for Cryptologic Research

Africacrypt 2012, July 10-12, Ifrane Morocco

Africacrypt 2012 was held on the campus of the Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, on July 10-12. The Program Chair was Serge Vaudenay, the General co-Chairs were Abdelhak Azhari and Tajje-eddine Rachidi, and the Publication Chair was Aikaterini Mitrokotsa. Africacrypt 2012 was organized jointly by Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane and the Moroccan Association for Cryptography. The conference was held in cooperation with IACR (International Association for Cryptologic Research) and in partnership with the Région Meknès Tafilalet, Morocco. The technical program included 24 regular papers categorized into ten sessions that were selected from 56 submissions 12 of which had at least one co-author from Africa. In addition 3 invited talks were presented, by Willi Meier (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland), Craig Gentry (IBM), and Marc Fischlin (The Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany). The conference proceedings were published by Springer's LNCS and most of the presentation slides for the technical sessions, including the invited talks, are now available on the conference website: http://www.aui.ma/africacrypt2012/home/africacrypt-2012-presentations.html. Delegates from the Moroccan National Security agencies also attend the conference. The best paper award, went to Elena Andreeva, Bart Mennink, Bart Preneel, and Marjan Skrobot for their paper "Security Analysis and Comparison of the SHA-3 Finalists BLAKE, Groestl, JH, Keccak, and Skein." The social program included a cedar tree planting session, and an optional conference banquet and an excursion to the Imperial city of Fes.