PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Eli Biham

Also known as אלי ביהם

Eli Biham is an Israeli cryptographer and cryptanalyst at the Technion who co-invented differential cryptanalysis and co-designed the Serpent block cipher. After a B.Sc. at Tel Aviv University in 1982, he completed a Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute in 1991 under Adi Shamir and joined the Technion's computer science faculty in 1991. Serpent, designed with Ross Anderson and Lars Knudsen and first published in 1998, finished second to Rijndael in the AES contest, and with Elad Barkan and Nathan Keller he published attacks on GSM encryption in 2003 and 2006. From 2008 to 2013 he served as dean of the Technion's computer science faculty, shared the 2012 RSA Conference Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics with Mitsuru Matsui, became a 2012 IACR Fellow, and received the Technion President's Award for Exceptional Achievement in 2023. He is a professor in the Technion's Computer Science department and the founding head of its Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center.

Now at
Technion
Born
1960
Badges

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 1982–1991

    Doctorate under Adi Shamir

    He earns a B.Sc. in mathematics and computer science at Tel Aviv University in 1982 and a Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute in 1991. His thesis, written under Adi Shamir, develops differential cryptanalysis, the first method that could break the Data Encryption Standard (DES), and he joins the Technion's computer science faculty in 1991.

  2. 1998

    The Serpent block cipher

    With Ross Anderson and Lars Knudsen, he designs Serpent, a 128-bit block cipher first published in 1998 as a candidate for the Advanced Encryption Standard. Serpent finishes second to Rijndael among the AES finalists.

  3. 2003–2006

    Breaking GSM encryption

    With Elad Barkan and Nathan Keller, he publishes attacks on GSM mobile-phone encryption in 2003, including the paper 'Instant Ciphertext-Only Cryptanalysis of GSM Encrypted Communication'. The full version appears in 2006, with attacks against A5/1, A5/3 and GPRS that let attackers tap GSM conversations and decrypt them in real time or afterwards.

  4. 2008–2013

    Dean of Computer Science

    He serves as dean of the Technion's computer science faculty from 2008 to 2013, after two years as chief of its graduate school.

  5. 2012–2013

    RSA Award and IACR fellowship

    In 2012, the RSA Conference gives him its Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics, shared with Mitsuru Matsui, for work on the cryptanalysis of symmetric-key ciphers. The International Association for Cryptologic Research names him a 2012 Fellow for fundamental contributions to cryptanalysis, including the co-invention of differential cryptanalysis, and chooses him as its Distinguished Lecturer for 2013.

  6. 2016–2019

    Cyber center and Siemens attack

    The Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center opens at the Technion in April 2016, and he is its founding head. In 2019, he leads an attack, with Sara Bitan of the Technion and Avishai Wool of Tel Aviv University, that turns a key Siemens industrial controller on and off; the study goes to the company to fix the vulnerability.

  7. 2023

    A Technion President's Award

    The Technion confers its President's Award for Exceptional Achievement on him in 2023 for his contribution to the field of cyber. His expertise helped the Technion recover quickly from a recent cyber attack.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and cyber center head

    He is a professor in the Technion's Computer Science department and the founding head of its Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center. His listed research interests include cryptology and cryptanalysis, symmetric cryptography, quantum cryptography and quantum computation.

Career

  1. Since 1991TechnionComputer science faculty, Chief of the Graduate School

Education

  1. 1991Weizmann Institute of SciencePh.D.
  2. 1982Tel Aviv UniversityB.Sc.

From the biography.

  1. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes Technion. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Technion. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  3. 41% of people who worked abroad later worked in their country of birth among people with a recorded birth country and dated work historyIncludes Technion. Of 991 people with a recorded birth country who worked outside it, 410 (41%) later held a work position at home, led by the United States at 69%.
  4. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes Technion. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Eli Biham yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Prof. Eli Biham - Short Bio cs.technion.ac.il. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Eli Biham - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Serpent home page cl.cam.ac.uk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Serpent (cipher) - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. A5/1 - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. RSA Conference Announces Recipients of 15th Annual Award Program -- Security Today securitytoday.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Eli Biham, 2012 IACR Fellow iacr.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. CS Dean Receives the RSA Conference Award 2012 and IACR Distinguished Lecturer 2013 cs.technion.ac.il. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Press Release: First Japanese donation cyber.technion.ac.il. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. Researchers Wrest Control of One of World's Most Secure Industrial Controllers cs.technion.ac.il. Checked 21 October 2026.
  11. The Technion President's Award for Exceptional Achievement to Prof. Eli Biham cs.technion.ac.il. Checked 21 October 2026.
  12. Eli Biham - Technion technioncanada.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  13. Faculty Members cyber.technion.ac.il. Checked 21 October 2026.