What if your encryption software is working against you?
How compromised cryptographic software can leak secrets through valid ciphertexts, and how reverse firewalls can disrupt that leakage without learning the user’s secrets.
About Me
I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the
Systems and Software Security
group at the Department of Computer Science,
University of Manchester.
Before joining Manchester in December 2021, I held post-doc positions in the
Aarhus crypto group at
Aarhus University (Denmark) and at
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
(Germany). I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from
Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) in
2017, supervised by Giuseppe Ateniese.
Research Interests
Foundations of Cryptography
Practical Aspects of Cryptography
Subversion-Resilient Cryptography
Cryptocurrencies
Computational Complexity
Computational Number Theory
Research
My research focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of cryptography and its applications: subversion-resilient cryptography, foundations of Blockchain, key-exchange, cryptography from noisy sources, and secure multi-party computation. I am also interested in computational complexity theory and distributed systems in general.
Selected Media Coverage
- Blockchain Just Got Much More Powerful (Stevens)
- Accenture Launches A Way To Edit Blockchains (Forbes)
- Accenture to unveil blockchain editing technique (Financial Times)
- Accenture breaks blockchain taboo with editing system (Reuters)
- Downside of Bitcoin: A Ledger That Can’t Be Corrected (NYT)
- Is an Editable Blockchain the Future of Finance? (MIT Tech Review)
- Accenture Debuts Prototype of ‘Editable’ Blockchain for Enterprise and Permissioned Systems (Accenture)
- Censorship and healthcare’s redactable blockchain trapdoor (CIO)
Experience
Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Cryptography
The University of Manchester
Systems and Software Security group, Department of Computer Science.
Post-doc Researcher
Aarhus University
Aarhus crypto group (Denmark).
Post-doc Researcher (Akademischer Rat)
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität
Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany).
Research Fellow
Sapienza University of Rome
Education
PhD Computer Science
Sapienza University of Rome
PhD in Computer Science, supervised by Giuseppe Ateniese.
Master in Computer Science
University of São Paulo
Bachelor in Computer Science
Universidade Paulista
Publications
(2026).
The Cost of Fluidity: Communication Complexity Trade-offs in Fluid MPC.
IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch..
(2026).
The Cost of Fluidity: Communication Complexity Trade-Offs in Fluid MPC.
Applied Cryptography and Network Security - 24th International Conference, ACNS 2026, Stony Brook, NY, USA, June 22-25, 2026, Proceedings, Part I.
(2025).
Guarding the Signal: Secure Messaging with Reverse Firewalls.
IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch..
(2025).
Guarding the Signal: Secure Messaging with Reverse Firewalls.
Advances in Cryptology - CRYPTO 2025 - 45th Annual International Cryptology Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, August 17-21, 2025, Proceedings, Part VIII.
Teaching & Students
Research Group
- Trey Li — Postdoc Researcher
- Mareta Ardyani — PhD Student
- George Lorimer — PhD Student
- Christos Sakkas — PhD Student
Past Visitors
- Shancheng Zhang — Visiting PhD Student (2025 – 2026)
Teaching
- 2025 – Present — Unit leader, Introduction to Cryptography (COMP60201, MSc), The University of Manchester
- 2022 – 2024 — Lecturer, Cryptography, The University of Manchester
- 2022 – 2023 — Lecturer, Algorithms and Data Structures, The University of Manchester
Consultancy
I’m always open to offer private consulting services in cryptography and Blockchain technology. I am happy to interact with your company’s staff. If you’re interested in having me consult with you, please send me an email.
Contact
Blog
Can you edit a blockchain without breaking the chain?
How chameleon hashes allow authorized changes to a blockchain’s past, why public edits must not leak the editing key, and what cryptography leaves to governance.
Compiling a custom kernel for Slackware Linux with encrypted root partition
Extra steps required to build a custom kernel on Slackware when the root partition is encrypted with LUKS.