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CRYPTO, the International Cryptology Conference, is one of the largest academic conferences in cryptography and cryptanalysis. It is organized by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR), and it is held yearly in August in Santa Barbara, California at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The first CRYPTO was held in 1981. It was the first major conference on cryptology, and was all the more important because relations between government, industry and academia were rather tense. Encryption was considered a very sensitive subject and the coming together of delegates from different countries was unheard-of at the time. The initiative for the formation of the IACR came during CRYPTO '82, and CRYPTO '83 was the first IACR sponsored conference.