Ph.D. Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, 2003.
MSE Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, 2000.
M.S. Computer Science, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania, 1996.
B.S. Computer Science, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania, 1995.

I graduated from Johns Hopkins University, Computer Science Department, where I worked under the guidance of my advisor, Dr. Yair Amir.

While at Hopkins, I was a member of The Center of Networking and Distributed Systems (CNDS). My work was funded by the Dynamic Coalitions DARPA Program (grant co-funded by NSA) and by the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute.

My thesis focused on investigating high-performance and robust secure architectures for group communication systems. The dissertation outlined two approaches taken when designing a secure group communication system: a layered architecture , where the security services are separated from the distributed systems protocols, and an integrated architecture that provides increased scalability and performance, while requiring a more complex system design and relying on a different trust model. As opposed to previous work, my work investigated the use of contributory key agreement protocols as building blocks for group security services. Such protocols have the advantage that they provide strong security services such as key independence and perfect forward secrecy. The result of this work is a secure group communication, Secure Spread, whose security relies on a group key management protocol that is efficient, robust to process crashes and network partitions and merges, and protects confidentiality of the data even when long-term keys of the participants are compromised.

In addition to my thesis topic, I worked on deisigning secure routing protocols resilient to byzantine failures for ad hoc wireless networks; I was involved in the overall design and algorithms for a secure overlay network infrastructure and designed and developed a certified email system based on verifiable encryption of digital signatures, that requires the involvement of a third trusted party only in case of dispute.

Before going to Johns Hopkins, I obtained both a B.S. and a M.Sc. from Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania. Thanks to the TEMPUS scholarship program, I developed and finalized my B.S. graduation thesis at Politenico di Torino, Turin, Italy.

More information: http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/crisn/