Professor Sherman S. M. Chow has joined the Crypto Review Panel of the Internet Research Task Force’s Crypto Forum Research Group (IRTF CFRG) for a two-year term from May 2026 to April 2028. The appointment makes CUHK the first Asia-Pacific university represented on the panel, and Professor Chow the first Chinese professor to serve on it.

CFRG is a Research Group of the IRTF and serves as a key cryptographic advisory forum for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), reviewing the use of cryptographic mechanisms in Internet protocols and providing guidance on emerging and existing cryptographic techniques. Its Crypto Review Panel is a standing review body of typically eight to ten global experts. The panel provides critical, objective, timely, and consistent reviews of cryptographic algorithms in IRTF and IETF documents, including security and deployment issues. CFRG work has contributed to widely used and emerging Internet cryptographic specifications, including Hybrid Public Key Encryption (RFC 9180), OPAQUE for secure password-based authentication (RFC 9807), and FROST for threshold signing (RFC 9591). These specifications support deployed and emerging security mechanisms across modern Internet infrastructure.

Professor Chow’s research focuses on applied cryptography, privacy-enhancing technologies, and secure distributed systems, including work on anonymous credentials, encrypted search, threshold cryptography, and blockchain security. He recently served as a Keynote Speaker and Area Chair for Real-World Cryptography at Asiacrypt 2025, one of the main annual conferences of the International Association for Cryptologic Research. The appointment reflects his expertise in cryptographic protocol design and analysis, and strengthens CUHK’s role in the development of secure and deployable Internet cryptography.