Thijs Veugen

Professorship chair

Applied Cryptography (University of Twente).

Research area

During the past decades, there have been a couple of revolutionary developments within the research field of cryptography. Whereas cryptography is mostly known for securing bilateral communication, the subfield of multilateral cryptography has taken a leap towards application. A technique, known as secure multi-party computation, enables different parties, each having sensitive data, to jointly perform computations without revealing each other’s data. In our current era, where many data sources become available, and the interest for machine learning and artificial intelligence is growing, there is an increasing need for secure data sharing, i.e. secure computations with distributed data without revealing the data sources, such that additional value of data can be created.

The second important development is the rise of the quantum computer, which will be able to break an important part of our current cryptographic systems. This has led to the development of new systems, so called post-quantum crypto, that are able to withstand the computing power of the quantum computer.

Therefore, cryptography is currently of strategic importance to TNO, and our society, on various application domains.

Top publications

• Thijs Veugen, Unlocking the fascinating secrets of cryptography, inaugural lecture, University of Twente, October 19, 2023, link to PDF.
• Bart Kamphorst, Thomas Rooijakkers, Thijs Veugen, Matteo Cellamare, Daan Knoors, “Accurate training of the Cox proportional hazards model on vertically-partitioned data while preserving privacy”, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, vol. 22, nr. 49, 2022.Gabriele Spini, et al., “New Approach to Privacy-Preserving Clinical Decision Support Systems for HIV Treatment”, Journal of Medical Systems 46 (12), 1-11, 2022.