Less than 5% of cryptographers work on creating/breaking encryption algorithms. Encryption isn't the most important or most fundamental cryptographic construction. It's also mostly a solved problem. Attackers rarely even try to break encryption; they just exploit software bugs.
Here are a few of the cool things that modern cryptographers work on.
1. Secure Multiparty Computation: a powerful & broad set of techniques that enables (e.g.) 2 hospitals to do a genetic study on their combined patient records—without either sending its records to the other.
1. Secure Multiparty Computation: a powerful & broad set of techniques that enables (e.g.) 2 hospitals to do a genetic study on their combined patient records—without either sending its records to the other.
2. Theory of cryptography: how do questions about computational complexity (such as P vs NP) relate to which cryptographic algorithms are or aren’t secure? This is best understood as a quest to reveal the computational laws of nature and isn't directly motivated by applications.
3. Cryptographic protocols for specific applications, whether existing or proposed, such as anonymous communication, cryptocurrencies, and cryptographically auditable voting.
4. Post-quantum cryptography: which existing algorithms and protocols will break if quantum computing become a reality? Can we replace them with constructions that will remain secure even against an adversary equipped with quantum computers?
We need to spread the word that cryptography is far more than encryption. Decision makers & policy makers usually don't get Secure Multiparty Computation—the very possibility of it does sound deeply counterintuitive—which has greatly hindered the adoption of this important tech.
