Welcome
I’m Nicky Mouha, a cryptographer with a Ph.D. and two decades of experience in cryptanalysis, cryptographic design, and hardware/software implementations. I currently split my time between independent research, consulting engagements, and exploring new professional directions.
I spent ten years at NIST, where I expanded my work to include standards development, vulnerability research, and formal methods. My expertise spans symmetric-key primitives (block ciphers, hash functions, MACs), public-key cryptography (classical and post-quantum signatures, key agreement, and KEMs), and widely deployed protocols such as TLS, SSH, and IPsec.
I’m known for inventing the MILP- and SAT-based techniques for differential and linear cryptanalysis, designing the lightweight Chaskey algorithm (standardized in ISO/IEC 29192-6), and identifying vulnerabilities that affected billions of devices (CVE-2019-8741 and CVE-2022-37454).
I actively support the cryptographic community through program committees and editorial roles, including IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology (ToSC), CT-RSA 2026, ACM CCS 2025, Latincrypt 2025, and CFAIL 2025, where I also serve on the steering committee.
I have contributed to various software projects, including AWS-LC, BoringSSL, CodeQL, cvc5, Fil-C, Frama-C, Lean’s mathlib, mldsa-native, mlkem-native, nixpkgs, and OpenSSL.
Beyond selective consulting in cryptanalysis, security review, algorithm design, and protocol analysis, I’m open to collaborations, innovative startup ideas, and other professional opportunities.
Feel free to reach out at: .