Within the last three decades, digital communication has become a fundamental technology for our modern society. More than ever, we rely on the security of communication, for example on its authenticity, privacy, and integrity. These security goals rely on cryptography.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, developments in quantum computing have been building up momentum. Quantum computing promises disruptive changes in many fields of research and in many industries.
However, it also poses a disruptive threat to our current cryptography and therefore cybersecurity: In the next decades, quantum computers are expected to grow powerful enough to break crucial cryptography that is in use today - such as RSA, DSA, and DH, as well as elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).
The developments in quantum computing and its expected devastating impact on our current IT security have spawned active research into alternative cryptography that is secure against attacks using quantum computers. This field of research is called Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). This new generation of cryptography is able to replace our current cryptography and to run on our current computing devices and networks - and therefore is designed to be deployed long before quantum computers are able to break current cryptography.
The research in PQC has culminated in a standardization process by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the USA that started in December 2016 and that will have a world-wide impact on communication in the Internet. This standardization process is still ongoing - but it already has resulted in first drafts of PQC standards.
SDU is involved in this standardization process with one of our schemes about to be standardized, and three more schemes in ongoing investigation for potential future standardization.