ECRYPT

The Network of Excellence ECRYPT fell under the action line "Towards a global dependability and security framework" of the FP6 programme "Information Society Technologies". It investigated a number of cryptographic and watermarking techniques motivated by (a) the changing environment (evolving towards ambient intelligence) and threat models in which cryptology is deployed, (b) the gradual erosion of the computational difficulty of the mathematical problems on which cryptology is based, (c) the need for strong foundations in the watermarking area and (d) the requirements of new applications and cryptographic implementations. The Strategic Committee members of ECRYP met on a yearly basis in order to evaluate the output and recommend adaptations and reorientations as appropriate. Its reports were sent to the European Commission. In 2008, the Strategic Committee drew a positive assessment of the 4 years activities and recommended to pursue the effort along a number of themes, giving rise to the project ECRYPT II.