Justin Troutman

Bio

Justin Troutman is a maturing cryptographer and undergraduate student in mathematics, originally from Gastonia, North Carolina, in the Charlotte metropolitan area, where he has resided for most of the last two decades. His predominant focus is centered upon symmetric cryptography; to be more specific, his forte involves the design and cryptanalysis of IND-CCA2 and INT-CTXT secure channels, with block ciphers and message authentication codes (MACs) at their core--the latter's essential nature of which he advocates and evangelizes. Over the past couple of years, he has evolved into a fervent researcher of cryptovirology, an infantile sub-genre of cryptography in an offensive context; in this area, he conducts cryptanalysis related to, among other things, cryptovirological information extortion based on game-theoretic arbitrated protocols and indistinguishability under adaptive chosen-ciphertext attacks, as well as the economical implications of such malicious applications. He is also a strong proponent of educating folks on matters of a cryptographic nature; with this in mind, he lectures frequently at information security conferences and authors layman-oriented articles, geared towards the lesser-known components of cryptography, with the intent of bridging the gap between the general media's coverage of cryptography and the analysis that rarely escapes from between the covers of scientific journals. And so it goes, that with an impossible-to-go-unnoticed southern drawl and immense passion for peanut butter, sweet potato pie, and sweet iced tea, as his creative fuels of choice, he dutifully represents the cryptographic community in these endeavors, by contracting through his cryptovirology research firm, Extorque.