Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Novosibirsk State University –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
For more than two weeks, “Boiling Point – St. Petersburg. GUAP” was truly “boiling”, despite the midsummer. In each of the halls, the participants of the summer school “Cryptography and Information Security” were working. The traditional event, organized by the Cryptographic Center (Novosibirsk), International Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok, this year the GUAP venue hosted the event. The summer school was held for the seventh time, it brought together more than 35 teachers and over 165 students, postgraduates and schoolchildren from 35 cities of Russia. The geography of the participants is extensive: Tver, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Khanty-Mansiysk, Sevastopol, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ufa, Rostov-on-Don, Tyumen, Kaliningrad and other cities of our country.
The head of the school is Natalia Tokareva, associate professor of the Department of Theoretical Cybernetics. Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of NSU, head of the Cryptographic Center (Novosibirsk). The organizers and partners of the summer school in 2025 were the St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Southern Federal University, Special Technology Center LLC, Practical Security Systems LLC, Infotex JSC, Enseucrypto-lab LLC and NeoQUEST. Vice-Rector for Educational Work and Youth Policy Larisa Nikolaeva and the GUAP team were responsible for the organizational issues of the large-scale event.
Participants received knowledge from leading experts in the scientific and business fields, visited key enterprises in St. Petersburg and interesting excursions, and also united through training and sports games.
The event’s partners — universities and companies working in the field of cryptography and information security — provided the summer school participants with not only new and useful knowledge, expert lectures, but also career opportunities and development prospects in the profession. The students were able to learn everything about internships and future careers in companies such as OOO Special Technology Center, OOO Systems of Practical Security, AO Infotex, OOO Enseucrypto-lab and NeoQUEST. Representatives of these organizations personally talked to the students, answered all their questions and told them what steps they should take to take their first career steps in the field of information security.
The basis of the summer school was work on projects. Divided into teams, in which scientific research was carried out under the supervision of curators, the guys were preparing to present each of the projects at the final conference. The topics of the projects touched upon various issues of modern cryptography and information security: algorithms of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, issues of constructing cryptographic protocols for solving authentication, identification, key transfer, and messaging problems. The topics of the projects were suitable for both beginners in the field of cryptography and information security, and for advanced students who had already acquired knowledge as part of their studies.
On July 21, the summer school’s final conference took place, where the teams presented the results of their work. 23 research projects developed by the participants were combined by the organizers into a collection of papers. It can be found on the event website.
Participants shared what projects they worked on and what new things they learned during these two busy weeks.
Daria Severukhina, Novosibirsk:
— Our project was dedicated to the topic of post-quantum cryptography. We were engaged in the analysis of the vulnerability of a cryptosystem based on the “lattice theory”, namely, the study of side-channel attacks. Post-quantum cryptography is very relevant now, and the topic we were working on is one of the most promising in this area. I study at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and I study cryptography only in special courses that are held at our university. Therefore, this summer school is a great start to skills and knowledge in this area. In these two weeks, I learned so much information, met leading scientists in this area, I managed to work with them, which is very valuable. I am very glad that I got the opportunity to acquire this knowledge in practice.
Alina Skibina, Saint Petersburg:
— In our project on the topic of “Development of a prototype of a cryptographic hash function,” we developed a prototype of a hash function called “Gorynych.” We tried to create a hash function based on the Russian standard “Stribog,” inspired by the SURF function of Bernstein. This function has a simple design, high stability, and speed. These are the properties that modern hash functions should have. The team turned out to be friendly, well-coordinated, I enjoyed our interaction, I did not feel discomfort. There were many jokes, funny moments that diluted the intense work. I am very pleased with my participation in the summer school. This is not my first participation in such an event, so I was ready for intensive work. The most important skill is experience working in a team. And the lectures are very informative and interesting in that they touch on many areas of cryptography, and perhaps I will work in some of them in the future.
Anna Kozubova, Novorossiysk
— I finished the 9th grade and got to the summer school. Thanks to my participation, I decided on the direction that I would choose to study at GUAP — “Information Security”. Many useful lectures were held for us, and although they were more focused on people who were already studying in this specialty, I was able to study this topic additionally and become interested in it. I want to thank my team, where friendly and working relationships were formed over these two weeks. It was precisely because we united that we were able to prepare such a wonderful project. But none of this would have happened if it were not for our mentor — a true master of his craft — Bezzateev Sergey Valentinovich. In a word, the summer school became an important event for me.
Kirill Gromov, Tver:
— Our project was dedicated to electronic signatures of documents. We considered post-quantum algorithms, which have a higher complexity and are designed so that with the next stage of computer technology development they will not be hackable. We also considered vulnerabilities that are better known at the moment. This is a very good experience to find out what will change in this area now. The scientific community, the experts who supported our projects are, first of all, our like-minded people and people who are interested in the development of this area. To communicate and work with such people almost on equal terms is a very good experience. A wonderful team, new knowledge, a beautiful city, and, despite the fatigue, there was strength for communication.
Artem Kolbeev, Sevastopol:
— This is my second time participating in the summer school “Cryptography and Information Security” and working with the same scientific supervisor — Oleg Sergeevich Zaikin. He guides the team in the right direction. We managed to choose a promising topic for study. I really liked the organization of the summer school — everything was organized competently, and we were given time not only for work, but also for excursions, recreation, and sports. The venue is suitable for comfortable work. We were given a number of very interesting lectures. And several ideas for further scientific developments arose.
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