IACR, Public Key Cryptography, 2009, Preface

It has been a real pleasure to have taken part in organizing the 12th International Conference on Practice and Theory in Public Key Cryptography (PKC'09). PKC'09 was held March 18-20 2009, on the campus of the University of California, Irvine (UCI). As usual, it was sponsored by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) in cooperation with:

• UCI Secure Computing & Networking Center (SCONCE)
• UCI Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (DBSICS)
• California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2)

Recent growth in the number of cryptography venues has resulted in stiff competition for high quality papers. Nonetheless, PKC's continued success is evident from both the number and the quality of submissions. PKC'09 received a total of 112 submissions. They were reviewed by the program committee members and a highly qualified team of external reviewers. Each submission was refereed by at least three reviewers. After deliberations by the program committee, 28 submissions were accepted for presentation. Based on extensive discussions, the PKC'09 best paper award was given to Alexander May and Maike Ritzenhofen for their paper: Implicit Factoring: On Polynomial Time Factoring Given Only an Implicit Hint . The conference program also included two invited talks, by Anna Lysyanskaya (Brown University) and Amit Sahai (UCLA).

A number of people selflessly contributed to the success of PKC'09. First and foremost, we thank the authors of all submissions. They are the backbone of this conference and their confidence and support are highly appreciated. We are similarly grateful to the dedicated, knowledgeable and hard-working program committee members who provided excellent reviews (on time and on tight schedule!) and took part in post-review discussions. Their altruistic dedication and community service spirit are commendable. We are also indebted to the PKC Steering Committee members for their guidance as well as to Shai Halevi and Christian Cachin for valuable technical assistance with revewing and organizational aspects. A special word of thanks to Moti Yung for his encouragement and help in the planning stage.

Last, but surely not least, we greatefully acknowledge extramural financial support (especially appreciated in these tough economic times) by Microsoft Research, Google and Qualcomm.