Work performed along this 18 months project has been split between two topics: on one hand we analysed the security and performance of several post-quantum solutions, and on the other hand we studied the feasibility to actually deploy these solutions.
The initial project phase has been devoted to widening the cryptographic background of the researcher. First months of the projects have been spent updating its expertise, not only in quantum security, but more broadly in cyber-security and cryptography, and this both from the academic and industrial point of views. This gain of knowledge materialized when the researcher became a “Certified Ethical Hacker” (CEH) in early 2019, a high-level professional qualification in cyber-security.
Regarding the security and performance analysis, efforts have at first been focused on a sub-family of cryptographic solutions, called lattice-based schemes. This family offers the most versatile solution in the post-quantum ecosystem (in the sense that it provides both encryption and signature), while having the most advantageous speed/memory-consumption/security trade-off. The study was then broadened to the whole spectrum of quantum-safe cryptographic schemes to meet the constrains of internal projects and products of ID Quantique (the beneficiary, a Swiss company providing quantum-safe cryptographic solutions). Throughout the project, several cryptographic candidates stood out depending on the constrains to be satisfied. As an example, isogeny-based cryptographic schemes have been found to offer an exceptionally low memory consumption, a criterion crucial in resource-constrained environment encountered in several ID Quantique projects.
During this phase, the researcher participated to several worldwide scientific conferences (PQCrypto 2018, NIST First PQC Standardization conference, “Cohomology of Arithmetic Groups, Lattices and Number Theory: Geometric and Computational Viewpoint” at CIRM), which allowed him to publish an overview of recent trends in post-quantum cryptography in the ID Quantique newsletter. An updated version of this article is expected to be released by the end of 2019, together with a technical report on post-quantum cryptography for the industry. Finally, the research will also lead a series of informal talks within ID Quantique about cryptography and cyber-security.
On the deployment side, work has been driven by one major industry concern: the feasibility of deploying quantum-safe cryptographic material. Indeed, moving from widely deployed security solutions to a brand new one is an impactful decision which raises issues involving many technological and human aspects. Meetings with numerous industrial partners of ID Quantique allowed to exhibit solutions whose deployment cost will manageable, while also offering a progressive transition to replace soon-to-be deprecated cryptographic material. It materialized in several proof-of-concept of usage of quantum-safe solutions in various industrial contexts, but also in an evaluation an transition plan for ID Quantique own products.
