Cryptology group at Dutch research institute is involved in the two primary algorithms of the next NIST portfolio comprising four new standards
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has chosen the first group of encryption tools designed to withstand the attack of a future quantum computer, which could potentially crack the security used to protect privacy in the digital systems we rely on today. Léo Ducas, senior researcher in the cryptology group at the Netherlands' Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), the national research institute for mathematics and computer science, is involved in the two most important algorithms of the upcoming NIST portfolio – one for public key encryption and one for digital signatures. According to Ducas, who is also a professor at the University of Leiden, these new standards are inevitable because there is nervousness about the arrival of quantum computing. "We know quantum computing will not be rife tomorrow, but this standardisation procedure and its deployment take time," he said. "Obviously there is certain sensitive information that needs to be secure and confidential – not just at present, but in the future as well. Take state secrets, for instance." Cyber security experts have warned that hackers are stealing data now to decrypt it in the future, when quantum computing could render modern encryption methods obsolete. A report published by NIST in April 2016 cited experts that acknowledged the possibility of quantum technology rendering the commonly used RSA algorithm insecure by 2030. "We need to be ready for that," said Ducas. "This means we have to anticipate now." The announcement of the chosen tools follows a six-year effort managed by NIST, which started in 2016 with a call for the world's cryptographers to devise and then vet encryption methods that could resist an attack from a future quantum computer. A total of 23 signature schemes and 59 encryption schemes were submitted, of which 69 were deemed complete and proper. The NIST competition consists of four rounds, during which some schemes are discarded and others studied more…