CityU holds thematic lecture on searchable symmetric encryption in data science
The Faculty of Data Science of City University of Macau (CityU) yesterday hosted the first thematic lecture of this new academic year, featuring Professor Ning Jianting from the School of Cyber Science and Engineering of Wuhan University as the speaker. Titled "Provably Secure Searchable Symmetric Encryptions: Definition, Construction, Attacks and Defenses”, the lecture provided a summary and review of key developments in searchable symmetric encryption (SSE), and emphasized the prospects and future directions for the field. The event attracted nearly a hundred faculty and students specializing in data science and computer science to participate.[foogallery id="97627"]
Professor Ning Jianting delved into the key developments and research progress in SSE, emphasizing its critical role in user privacy protection and efficient data access. He further introduced a classification framework for SSE solutions, providing a detailed analysis based on their query expressiveness, along with a comprehensive examination of existing attacks and corresponding defense mechanisms. Professor Ning pointed out that although SSE has made remarkable advances in privacy protection, it continues to face emerging challenges. He stressed that future work must better balance the relation between user-friendly experience and security, enabling users to effectively safeguard their personal privacy while benefiting from the payment convenience and the cloud services.[foogallery id="97631"]
The lecture was conducted in a vibrant atmosphere, with students actively participating in discussions and raising questions, demonstrating strong interest in this field. Students noted that through Professor Ning’s elaboration, they gained a deeper understanding of the balance between privacy protection and data access efficiency, which also provided the inspiration of valuable research direction for their upcoming postgraduate studies. The event not only broadened students’ academic horizons but also inspired their passion for further exploration in related fields. Students harvested valuable gains from this lecture.Professor Ning Jianting currently serves as professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Wuhan University. He is a recipient of the National Young Talents Program and has been appointed as a Minjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor in Fujian Province. As a leading expert in cryptography and information security, his research covers public-key cryptography, blockchain security, and privacy protection technologies. He has published over 100 papers in top-tier conferences and journals including ACM CCS, NDSS, and IEEE TIFS, and was honored with the Best Paper Award at ESORICS 2020 and the Outstanding Youth Award from the Chinese Association for Cryptologic Research.Professor Ning has served as an editorial board member for IEEE TIFS, program committee member for prestigious conferences such as IEEE S&P, and as special topic/youth editor for Computer Technology and Development, Journal of Cyber Security, and Cybersecurity. He has also participated as an evaluation panelist for national and provincial-level major projects and talent programs in China.
