Preface to
IACR Theory and Practice of Public Key Cryptography
(PKC) 2014

PKC 2014, the 17th Annual IACR International Conference on Practice and Theory of Public-Key Cryptography, was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 26-28, 2014. The conference, sponsored by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR), focuses on all technical aspects of public-key cryptography - including theory, design, analysis, cryptanalysis, implementation and applications. This was the first PKC to be held in South America.

These proceedings contain 38 papers selected by the program committee from a total of 145 submissions - the second highest number in the conference's history. The many high-quality submissions made it easy to build a good program but also required rejecting good papers. Each submission was judged by at least three reviewers, or four in the case of submissions by program committee members. The selection process included five weeks of focused independent review followed by five weeks of lengthy discussions. At the end of the 10-week review period the reports and discussions produced over 38,000 lines of text, a testament to the dedication and thoroughness of the program committee members. This wonderful work would have been impossible without the collaboration of 150 members of our community that served as external reviewers. To them and all the members of the program committee I am truly grateful. My sincere gratitude goes also to the hundreds of authors that submitted their excellent work - without them there wouldn't be a conference.

The program also featured two excellent invited lectures: "Post-Snowden Cryptography" by Adi Shamir and "Multilinear Maps and Obfuscation" by Shai Halevi. On behalf of the Program Committee, I would like to thank Adi and Shai for kindly accepting our invitation.

The work of a program chair and a successful conference depend on many people that deserve special thanks. Ariel Waissbein and Juan Garay, the conference General Chairs, did a wonderful work organizing the event and managing its many complexities. Shai Halevi's excellent submission and review software was pivotal for the smooth management of the review process, and he was kind enough to patiently answer my many questions. Special mention goes to the PKC steering committee for their organization of the PKC conferences for so many years and for giving us the opportunity to bring cryptography to this part of the planet. Finally, I want to thank our sponsors: Argentina's Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, Fundacíon Sadosky, IBM Research, and Microsoft Research.