What is "ecrypt"

ECRYPT (European Network of Excellence in Cryptology) was a 4-year European research initiative launched on 1 February 2004 with the stated objective of promoting the collaboration of European researchers in information security, and especially in cryptology and digital watermarking.

ECRYPT listed five core research areas, termed "virtual laboratories": symmetric key algorithms (STVL), public key algorithms (AZTEC), protocol (PROVILAB), secure and efficient implementations (VAMPIRE) and watermarking (WAVILA).

In August 2008 the network started another 4-year phase as ECRYPT II.