As part of Scotland Fintech's Festival, this event will outline some key areas of knowledge and innovation related to the usage of cryptography, blockchain, zero trust and quantum computers. It will be presented at Edinburgh Napier's Craiglockhart Campus by Professor Bill Buchanan and Dr Mwarwan Abubakar.

Areas covered include:

Crypto 101: Creation, Usage and Investigation. This outlines the core principles related to cryptocurrency, crypto assets, blockchain, NFTs and digital wallets. This will outline the operation of Bitcoin and Ethereum, including practical examples of their operation, and in the usage of crypto tokens.

Quantum Computers: Threats and Opportunities. This outlines the operation of quantum computers and their operation. The key focus areas will be related to the opportunities for data processing using quantum computers, along with the risks involved in the cracking of the existing public key methods. It will involve practical demonstrations of the NIST defined Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) methods, including for CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium, along with the coverage of hybrid encryption methods. No technical background knowledge will be assumed in the presentation.

AI and Cybersecurity: This outlines the risks around the use of AI in cybersecurity, including how AI can be used as an attacker, and how cryptography might overcome these threats.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC): This outlines the usage of digital currency, and an analysis of the Bank of England’s proposal for a Digital Pound. Overall, it will focus on the current state-of-the-art of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), and how the UK could integrate them.

Zero Trust and Privacy in FinTech: This outlines the move towards zero trust environments, and how we can implement methods to preserve the privacy of data, while supporting trusted processing. Included in the presentation will be the usage of ZKP (Zero Knowledge Proofs), Homomorphic Encryption (HE) and ABE (Attributed-based Encryption), along with a focus on cloud-based processing. No technical background knowledge will be assumed in the presentation. In association with MIRACL.

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