Introduction of Evangelists
Here we will introduce you to the Evangelists within NTT Social Informatics Laboratories.
At NTT, the following titles are bestowed on researchers who are actively engaged in Japan and abroad.
The title of "Fellow" is reserved for individuals whose research results have brought global recognition, and the company anticipates that the individual's work will continue to demonstrate a high level of achievement in areas of key research interest to NTT.
"Distinguished Researcher" is a title given to innovative researchers who are recognized both within and outside the company for the excellence of their work. "Senior Distinguished Researcher" is a title given to exceptionally gifted Distinguished Researchers responsible for guiding innovative research or cutting-edge technical development in research areas considered to be important for the NTT Group over the long term.
"Chief Security Scientist" is a title given to individuals who significantly enhance security capabilities through wide-ranging technological and scientific activities that go beyond the NTT Group (global and/or national security measures, national security system design, providing advice and/or drafting operational guidelines, etc.).
"Security Principal" is a title given to individuals with an outstanding record of achievement both domestically and internationally, and who have gained the trust and acclaim of their peers both within and outside the company. "Security Master" is a title given to individuals among Security Principal who accomplish a task of especially lasting impact on international community.
Fellow/Security Master
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Masayuki Abe
Director of the Abe Distinguished Research Laboratory.
Since joining NTT, has been engaged in research on cryptology, especially on the security of cryptographic protocols.
Has produced remarkable results in extending and upgrading digital signatures, such as group structure preserving (SP) cryptosystems, partially blind signatures, and improved ring signatures, which have applications in cryptocurrencies and privacy protection in information distribution. Has also conducted pioneering research on distributed verifier zero-knowledge proofs and other results useful in recent distributed environments. In recent years, has led a distinguished research laboratory and is leading research on cryptography for the coming quantum era.
Recipient of the 48th Ichimura Academic Achievement Award (April 2016), the 53rd Achievement Award of the Telecommunications Society of Japan (June 2016), the 64th Dense Maeshima Award of the Communications Culture Association of Japan (April 2019), and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for Science and Technology (Research Category) (April 2021).
Member of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) (2015-) and a Fellow of IACR.
PhD (Engineering). -
Tatsuaki Okamoto
Specializes in cryptology and computational theory. Research focuses on the theoretical areas of cryptography and information security, with a recent interest in the fundamental theory of complexity.
Since joining the company, has been engaged in research and development of computer network architecture and natural language processing. Subsequently, conducted research in cryptography and information security, and computational complexity theory. Helped establish NTT Research, Inc. (USA) and served as the Laboratory Director of NTT Research, Inc. from 2019-2022. Served as a board member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR), President of the Japanese Society for Applied Mathematics, and a board member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers. Received the Achievement Award, Meritorious Achievement Award, and Paper Award from the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, the Director-General's Award from the Science and Technology Agency, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, the RSA Conference Award, Distinguished Speaker of the International Cryptology Association, Achievement Award from the Japanese Society for Applied Mathematics, the Asahi Prize, and others.
Fellow of IACR.
PhD(Engineering).
Security Master/Chief Security Scientist
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Katsumi Takahashi
Researcher in information security. Especially interested in security and privacy of Big Data/IoT.
Developed secure computation, anonymization, intelligent cryptography, cloud key cryptography, "privango", etc. as a member of NTT's cryptography research team. Since joining NTT, has been consistently engaged in research and development of information processing technology, and has realized pioneering location-based search engines such as i-townpage, mobile infosearch, and "kokono search" in the early days of the web. Has also contributed to bridging the gap between technology and systems, and contributed to the revision of the Personal Information Protection Law in 2009 as a member of the government's study group.
PhD(Information Engineering).
Senior Distinguished Researcher/Security Master
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Mitsuaki Akiyama
Since joining NTT, has been engaged in R&D of counter-cyber attack technologies. Seeks to create effective security intelligence for measures by developing technologies to monitor, detect, and analyze diversifying cyber attacks on an Internet-wide scale. Research themes cover a wide range, including honeypot, Web security, malware analysis, mobile app/device analysis, IoT device/firmware analysis, and usable privacy and security.
PhD(Engineering).
Senior Distinguished Researcher/Security Principal
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Makoto Iwamura
Leader of Cyber Security Research Group, Social Informatics Research Project.
Engaged in research and development of technologies to elucidate the functions and threats of malware for the purpose of countermeasures against cyber-attacks. Also involved in research and development of reverse engineering, vulnerability analysis, and forensics.
PhD (Engineering).
Senior Distinguished Researcher
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Takashi Yamakawa
Studies constructions of post-quantum and quantum cryptographic protocols and their security.
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Junji Watanabe
Researcher on information and communication technologies that connect people and wellbeing. Conducts research on co-creation support methods that enable people to live in wellbeing through physical and communal sensations. Has developed technology to create intimacy between people even at a distance by means of tactile transmission, and has fostered places of "connection" in the real world (family, places of work and study, and local communities) using "Our Well-being Cards" that reveal the wellbeing values inherent in people. Collaborating with Professor Yasuo Deguchi, a philosopher at Kyoto University, on "Self-as-We", a holistic view of the self based on the Eastern tradition of thought.
PhD(Information Science and Engineering).
Distinguished Researcher/Security Principal
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Yuhei Kawakoya
Engaged in research to fully automate malware analysis.
Working on research and development of techniques to automatically reveal all functions and behaviors of malware using program analysis techniques such as taint analysis and symbolic execution.
PhD (Engineering). -
Mehdi Tibouchi
Carries out research on the construction and analysis of public-key cryptographic primitives. Specializes on the number-theoretic problems upon which the security of public-key cryptography is based. Strives to achieve secure and efficient implementations of cryptographic schemes both classical (RSA, elliptic curves, etc.) and post-quantum (lattice-based, isogeny-based, etc.), and to invent novel cryptographic functionalities for the next generation.
Ph.D. (Computer Science).
Distinguished Researcher
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Fuyuki Kitagawa
Researches cryptology, especially design and security analysis of public key encryption schemes and more advanced ones. Recent interests include the intersection between cryptography and quantum information such as design of new cryptopraphic primitives utilying the power of quantum information.
PhD(Science). -
Atsutoshi Kumagai
Researches machine learning that enables knowledge transfer from diverse data. Goal is to create machine learning techniques that enable value extraction by leveraging knowledge from a wide variety of different data, even for problems for which sufficient quality and quantity of data are not available.
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Yu Sasaki
Researches cryptology, especially design and security analysis of symmetric key cryptography. Designs secure and efficient symmetric key algorithms and conducts security analysis of international standard ciphers and other cryptosystems, aiming to provide appropriate cryptographic communications for applications ranging from high-capacity communications to IoT communications. Has been conducting research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since February 2022.
PhD(Engineering). -
Junko Takahashi
Researches the design of cryptographic implementation methods and the photonic circuits to achieve photonic cryptographic hardware using photonic logic gates, which is necessary to ensure the security of optical information processing infrastructure.
PhD(Engineering). -
Nariyoshi Chida
Software is a critical foundation of our society, and bugs and vulnerabilities are significant threat to the society. To overcome these threats, conducts research on technologies that automatically detect and repair bugs and vulnerabilities in software.
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Yosuke Todo
Researches common-key cryptography, construction of the basic theory for the next generation and design of purpose-specific cryptography, and the theory underlying common-key cryptography such as Boolean functions. In particular, evaluating the security of cryptographic schemes and designing purpose-specific cryptographic schemes such as ultra-low power consumption.
PhD(Engineering). -
Ryo Nishimaki
Researches cryptology and secure computation methods on encrypted information and programs. Especially design theory and concrete construction methods for secure cryptography, signature and proof systems, and program obfuscation to achieve communication and computation with information kept secret.
PhD(Science).
Associate Distinguished Researcher/Security Principal
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Toshinori Usui
As countermeasures against cyberattacks, conducts research aimed at enhancing the attack resistance of virtual execution environments such as interpreters. In recent years, research focus has been on proactively discovering new attack techniques before they are exploited by attackers, and designing countermeasures in advance to prevent potential damage.
PhD(Informatics).
Associate Distinguished Researcher
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Wataru Akahori
With the growing prevalence of remote and hybrid work, studies the complex interactions among people, social groups, and information technology, and explore how workplace technologies and policies can be designed based on this understanding. Focuses on concepts such as interpersonal relationships in the workplace and at home, work-life balance, and autonomy, aiming to create an information society that supports well-being and diverse working styles.
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Jack Jamieson
Researches social computing and human-computer interaction (HCI), focusing on protecting well-being in digital environments. Themes include networked collaboration, adoption of social technologies, misinformation, AI and human relationships, and values like privacy, autonomy, and inclusion in design.
PhD (Information). -
Koki Hamada
Researches algorithm theory, especially efficent computation methods that keep information private. Designs efficient algorithms and data structures for secure multi-party computation.
PhD(Informatics).
Security Principal
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Kazufumi Aoki
Researches cyber attack detection and malware analysis technologies. Particularly interested in establishing countermeasures against cyber-attacks through his current research and development of the "Cyber Attack Countermeasure Technology Collaboration Platform" and technology to determine the success or failure of attacks.
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Dai Ikarashi
Since entering NTT in 2008, has been exploring on the research, development and practical realization of the techniques which process data while it is protected, such as secure computation, which processes data while it is encrypted, secret sharing, data anonymization. Currently, is the technical leader on the secure computation team in NTT and controls its technical direction. On the other hand, is now researching and implementing a framework for easing the development of software using secure computation.
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Kenicihro Oominato
Previously focused on strengthening organizational security by preventing and mitigating security incidents, as well as implementing and managing technical security measures.
Leveraging professional experience, working on exploring security measures to make AI technologies more accessible and trustworthy. -
Ryo Kikuchi
Engaged in research and development of privacy enhancing technologies (PETs), including secure multiparty computation, while also contributing to international standardization efforts and collaborating with domestic and international organizations to promote the establishment of security frameworks and the social implementation of these technologies.
PhD -
Takashi Koide
Focuses on developing machine learning techniques that analyze large-scale data from automated web crawling and network observations to detect and prevent social engineering attacks targeting user psychological vulnerabilities at an early stage.
Ph.D. (Informatics) -
Toshiki Shibahara
Researches cyber attack detection based on machine learning. Recent interests include security of machine-learning-based systems, particularly attacks against deep neural networks and privacy protection.
PhD(Information Science). -
Yasuyuki Tanaka
Engaged in research on the efficiency and advancement of malware analysis techniques in the analysis field. Also involved in fostering cybersecurity talent through industry-academia collaboration.
PhD (Informatics). -
Daiki Chiba
Focusing on the research and development of novel cyber attack countermeasure technologies that combine large-scale observation of real-world data and data analysis, particularly working on the research, development, and practical applications of proprietary threat intelligence generation techniques.
Ph.D. (Engineering). -
Wataru Matsuda
Engaged in research to attack detection techniques and attack method validation for OT (Operational Technology) security in addition to IT systems. Also involved in cybersecurity education and training through industry-academia collaboration with universities.