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Hi, and welcome to my website!

My name is Lior Malka, and I specialize in computer security. I started my career in cryptography, which means encryption to most people. Cryptography provides other tools that our devices use all the time, such as digital signatures and hash functions.

Cryptography was fun. Not just because it was interesting, but also because it gave me the freedom to explore. I used to do a lot of hiking back then. I climbed mountains and crossed rivers all over the world (the Andes, Patagonia, the Himalayas, New-Zealand, Australia, Canada, and more). It was great!

My first project in cryptography was on secure communication and authentication (supervisor: Dr. Amos Beimel). After that I moved to Canada and worked on zero-knowledge protocols (supervisor: Dr. Bruce Kapron).

Zero-knowledge protocols enable one party to prove an assertion to another party, without revealing anything other than the truth of the assertion. For example, when you call the bank and give them the last four digits of your social security number, you prove ownership of your account, but it is not zero-knowledge because you reveal something. With zero-knowledge you can prove your identity without revealing anything. Isn't that cool?

After zero-knowledge, I started working on more practical applications, mainly in secure computation (supervisor: Jonathan Katz). Around that time I was toying with the idea of creating an internet without passwords. I knew that cryptography was not enough to tackle this challenge. So when a job offer came from Intel, I took it.

At Intel I developed new zero-day technologies for malware detection and delivered them to McAfee. These technologies protect millions of users every day. Outside of my team, I helped software and hardware projects accross the company with threat modeling and security reviews. Prior to working on malware, I improved the security of several components of the Intel phone.

I really enjoyed working at Intel. I joined their binary translation team as a cryptographer, but had a fantastic opportunity to work on systems security, and gain experience with hardware, drivers, libraries, mobile, and malware. In the future, I want to continue working with passionate people, and learn new things.

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