NIST Takes a Step Toward Quantum-Resistant Encryption

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) says it’s a step closer to developing encryption that quantum computers won’t be able to crack. (Or so you hope).

Agency Requested(Opens in a new window) researchers to help it prepare for the introduction of increasingly capable quantum computers in 2016. Now, nearly six years later, NIST has determinant(Opens in a new window) Four cipher algorithms to be included in the first version of the Quantum Post-Cryptography Standard.

The first algorithm has been called keper crystals(Opens in a new window). NIST plans to recommend it for “public cryptography, [which is] They are used when we access secure websites,” due to a combination of “relatively small encryption keys” and “operating speed,” the agency says.

The other three algorithms –Crystals – Dilithium(Opens in a new window)And the Falcon(Opens in a new window) And the SPHINCS +(Opens in a new window)—Designed for digital signatures that can be used to “verify identities during a digital transaction or to sign a document remotely.” NIST says it will recommend dilithium as its primary algorithm.

“NIST constantly looks to the future to anticipate the needs of American industry and society at large, and when they are built, quantum computers powerful enough to crack current encryption will pose a serious threat to our information systems,” NIST Director Lucasio said in a statement. “Our Post-Quantum Encoder has harnessed the best minds in cryptography – worldwide – to produce this first set of quantum-resistant algorithms that will standardize and dramatically increase the security of our digital information.”

But the agency’s work is not over. NIST is currently evaluating four additional algorithms, which are more similar to the encryption methods we currently use than the four disclosed today, for possible inclusion in the post-quantum cryptographic standard.

“NIST is announcing its options in two phases due to the need for a robust variety of defense tools,” the agency says. Like the coders did Recognized from the beginning of the efforts of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)(Opens in a new window), there are different systems and tasks that use encryption, and a useful standard would provide solutions tailored to different situations, use various methods of encryption, and provide more than one algorithm per use case if the vulnerability is proven. “

The agency plans to introduce a version of the post-quantum encryption standard “in about two years”. (Which would be about eight years after his initial call for proposals.) More information about the first batch of cryptographic algorithms is available via NIST website(Opens in a new window).