The Information Security Group (GSI) of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) hosts every year a few insternship students (Bachelor or Master) in order to achieve a Bachelor or Master thesis. The GSI deals with many aspects of information security especially applied cryptography. Ongoing research concerns cryptographic protocols, theorical and practical attacks, time-memory trade-off, security analysis of radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions including (but not limited to) authentification, privacy, relay attacks, random generators, and ePassport.

Proposals

The topics suggested for an internship in 2011/12 are the following.

• Proposal 2011-01: Practical Cryptanalysis of Pseudo-Random Number Generators in RFID
• Proposal 2011-02: RFID Toolbox: Read and Sniff RFID Tags
• Proposal 2011-03: Optimisation des procédures de brancardage dans les hôpitaux.
• Proposal 2011-04: Cracking Passwords Faster than his Shadow.
• Proposal 2011-05: Passport Torturer, Reloaded
• Proposal 2011-06: Mirror your Neighbors!

Description of the Group

The Information Security Group (GSI) belongs to the Department of Computing Science and Engineering of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). The GSI has been launched in 2008 by Gildas Avoine, and offers an active research environment to improve the current state of information security, through research and teaching activities. With background from computer science, telecommunication, and mathematics, members of the GSI address many aspects of information security especially applied cryptography. Currently, the GSI includes four researchers and a handful of thesis students. Ongoing research in the GSI concerns cryptographic protocols, theoretical and practical attacks, time-memory trade-offs, security analysis of RFID solutions including (but not limited to) authentication, privacy, relay attacks, and pseudo-random generators. The group is proud to maintain the RFID Security and Privacy Lounge (http://www.avoine.net/rfid/), a scientific website devoted to the so-mentioned domain. The website created in 2004 references today more than 400 research papers and 750 members are registered to its mailing list.

Description of the University

Founded in 1425, the University of Louvain is one of the oldest universities in Europe. It was split in 1971 into two separate universities, one Dutch-speaking remaining in Leuven (KUL) and one French-speaking located in Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL). Among its former researchers and teachers, there are Erasmus, Mercator, Vesalius, Vives, and Lemaître. Louvain-la-Neuve (LLN) is not an ordinary campus. In twenty-five years, it has established its reputation as a city in itself, with a population balanced between students and non-student residents. The 20,000 students, 3,000 scientists, and 1,800 staff members benefit from a real urban environment, with all the facilities and opportunities provided by such a setting in terms of shops, contacts, and culture, but they also enjoy the luxurious nature just a few steps away. Louvain-la-Neuve is also greatly appreciated for its famous pedestrian-only downtown. LLN is quite close from Brussels: the European capital can be easily reached from Louvain-la-Neuve by car or train. The journey by car from LLN to Brussels' ring is no longer than 20 minutes using the free highway, and the train takes only 35 minutes to carry you to Brussels' Luxembourg station from LLN, with a frequency of about 3 trains per hour. From Brussels, it is quite convenient to visit the other main European cities either by train or plane. From Brussels, the shortest journey by train to visit Paris is 1:22, Lille is 0:35, London is 2:09, and Amsterdam is 2:41. Regular and low-cost flights are also available from Brussels and Charleroi airports.

Requirements

Members of the GSI have various profiles and background from computer science, telecommunication, and mathematics. Addressing cryptographic problems usually requires some knowledge in each of the mentioned domains. In other words, we expect the candidate for a Bachelor or Master thesis to be fluent with the main mathematical concepts addressed in cryptography, but he should neither be afraid by getting his hands dirty by implementing some code. The UCL is a French-speaking university. Speaking French is not mandatory but ability to communicate in English is required. Students involved in a Master program outside Belgium can achieve their master thesis at the UCL usually without any heavy administrative stuff. When a student is interested by one or several proposals, he should contact Gildas Avoine to get in touch and discuss his interests and skills. He will then probably be required to provide a CV. Then an oral agreement is needed between a professor of the sending university and Gildas Avoine, followed afterwards by an official internship agreement (``Convention de stage''), usually provided by the UCL, and signed by the student, the sending university, and the hosting university.