| The question “Streamciphers: dead or alive?” was posed by Adi Shamir. Intended to provoke debate, the question could not have been better, or more starkly, put. However, it was not Shamir’s intention to suggest that stream ciphers themselves were obsolete; rather he was questioning whether stream ciphers of a dedicated design were relevant now that the AES is pervasively deployed and can be used as a perfectly acceptable stream cipher.
To explore this question the eSTREAM Project was launched in 2004, part of the EU-sponsored ECRYPT Framework VI Network of Excellence. The goal of the project was to encourage academia and industry to consider the “dead stream cipher” and to explore what could be achieved with a dedicated design. Now, after several years of hard work, the project has come to a close and the 16 ciphers in the final phase of eSTREAM are the subject of this book.
The designers of all the finalist ciphers are to be congratulated. Regardless of whether a particular algorithm appears in the final portfolio, in reaching the third phase of eSTREAM all the algorithms constitute a significant milestone in the development of stream ciphers.
However, in addition to thanking all designers, implementers, and cryptanalysts who participated in eSTREAM, this is a fitting place to offer thanks to some specific individuals. |