Project description
Protection against tomorrow’s quantum attacks
Quantum computers could one day become so powerful that they could break even the most sophisticated cryptography. This means that our internet communications and e-commerce will no longer be safe. Another future challenge is the threat posed by new environments such as Big Data, the Internet of Things and cryptocurrencies, where traditional cryptography is not enough. The EU-funded PARQ project is looking at lattices – whose study by mathematicians dates as far back as the early 1900s – for a solution. Specifically, the project will design lattice-based cryptography, widely considered to be resistant to quantum computers. The project will identify the best parallel and quantum algorithms for lattice problems, which are proving remarkably versatile as regards cryptography.
Objective
Today's digital world creates many security and privacy issues. But cryptography, a pillar of cybersecurity, is facing two major challenges. The first challenge is the threat of quantum computers, fueled by massive investment worldwide. Shor showed that a quantum computer can break the most prevalent forms of public-key cryptography used every day by e-commerce and bitcoins. This threat is now taken seriously by governmental organizations: the NIST initiated in 2016 a process to standardize by 2024 public-key cryptographic algorithms resistant to quantum computers. The second challenge is new environments, such as big data, IoT, or crypto-currencies. Because classical cryptography no longer suffices for these applications, novel cryptographic schemes and functionalities have been developed, e.g. to allow anyone to compute with encrypted data. But these benefits come at the cost of security uncertainty: it requires more risky assumptions and makes it more difficult to select parameters with confidence. Worryingly, the past few years have seen several established cryptographic assumptions collapse. Lattices are mathematical objects which have emerged in the past twenty years as the key technique to respond to these challenges: the ongoing standardization of homomorphic encryption and the majority of the candidates to NIST's post-quantum standardization rely on the conjectured hardness of lattice problems. This proposal aims at readying lattice-based cryptography for real-world deployment, by protecting it against the most powerful adversaries, from ASIC farms to quantum computers. We will study the best parallel and quantum algorithms for lattice problems, and derive automated tools to select safe parameters. The proposal will use the renowned expertise of the PI in lattice algorithms and cryptanalysis to explore the quantum frontiers of cryptanalysis.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternetinternet of things
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata sciencebig data
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputer securitycryptography
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementcommercee-commerce
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcomputer hardwarequantum computers
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantHost institution
78153 Le Chesnay Cedex
France