A selection of the most important recent news, articles, and papers about Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).
It’s been a couple of weeks since NIST announced the new post-quantum cryptography standards, so there’s been more news, press releases, and analysis of what this means for organizations and their cybersecurity strategies and implementations.
Also see: Special NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) News and Articles Edition for Thursday, August 15, 2024
General News, Articles, and Analyses
1. Moody’s: Fintech Faces Expensive Post-Quantum Encryption Shift | FinTech Magazine
https://fintechmagazine.com/articles/moodys-fintech-industry-set-for-costly-encryption-overhaul
Author: Louis Thompsett
(Friday, August 16, 2024) “Moody’s warns fintechs of costly, lengthy transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography as quantum computing threatens current encryption”
2. OODA Loop – Executive’s Guide: Navigating the Impact of NIST’s Finalized Post-Quantum Encryption Standards
Author: Bob Gourley
(Friday, August 16, 2024) “There are things business and government executives should know about these new algorithms and what they mean for our collective future. This post captures what you need to know.”
3. Breaking down the new NIST post-quantum cryptography standards with OMB’s Nick Polk – The Daily Scoop Podcast
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ktaPINuhjoMiosdwCRtoq
(Wednesday, August 21, 2024) “With the long-awaited release of NIST’s post-quantum cryptographic standards last week, there’s work ahead for federal agencies to make sure they’re ready for the age of quantum. Nick Polk, senior adviser on cybersecurity in the Office of the Federal CIO, joins the podcast to break down the significance of the new standards, how the White House is coordinating government and industry to take next steps, and what else agencies should be thinking about regarding their cybersecurity in the future.”
4. PQShield and Si-Five collaborate to advance post-quantum cryptography in RISC-V
Author: Ben Packman
(Wednesday, August 28, 2024) “PQShield, a leading quantum-safe cryptography provider, and RISC-V processing pioneer SiFive have partnered to deliver post-quantum cryptography on SiFive’s Essential and Performance high-performance processor families, protecting critical aerospace, consumer, defense, and automotive systems from quantum attacks and accelerating the adoption of NIST post-quantum cryptography standards on RISC-V technologies.”
5. Juniper Networks Partners with Quantum Bridge Technologies to Advance Industry-First Quantum-Safe Networking Solutions
(Wednesday, August 28, 2024) “Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), a leader in secure, AI-Native Networking, today announced a strategic investment in Quantum Bridge Technologies , an industry leader in Distributed Symmetric Key Exchange (DSKE) for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) networks. This investment showcases Juniper’s commitment to advancing quantum-safe communications by enabling Quantum Bridge to further scale its DSKE solution. To further inform ongoing research and product development in the field, the two companies will collaborate through Juniper Beyond Labs ‘ pathfinding projects.”
6. ‘Store now, decrypt later’: US leaders prep for quantum cryptography concerns
https://therecord.media/us-leaders-prep-for-quantum-cryptography-concerns
Author: Jonathan Greig
(Wednesday, August 28, 2024) “At the August meeting of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) on Tuesday, National Cyber Director Harry Coker said the threat posed by quantum computing is “not just on the horizon.””
Technical Papers, Articles, and Preprints
1. [2205.00615] Distributed Symmetric Key Establishment: A scalable, quantum-proof key distribution system
https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.00615
Authors: Lo, Hoi-Kwong; Montagna, Mattia; and von Willich, Manfred
(Tuesday, July 30, 2024) “We propose and implement a protocol for a scalable, cost-effective, information-theoretically secure key distribution and management system. The system, called Distributed Symmetric Key Establishment (DSKE), relies on pre-shared random numbers between DSKE clients and a group of Security Hubs. Any group of DSKE clients can use the DSKE protocol to distill from the pre-shared numbers a secret key. The clients are protected from Security Hub compromise via a secret sharing scheme that allows the creation of the final key without the need to trust individual Security Hubs. Precisely, if the number of compromised Security Hubs does not exceed a certain threshold, confidentiality is guaranteed to DSKE clients and, at the same time, robustness against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. The DSKE system can be used for quantum-secure communication, can be easily integrated into existing network infrastructures, and can support arbitrary groups of communication parties that have access to a key. We discuss the high-level protocol, analyze its security, including its robustness against disruption. A proof-of-principle demonstration of secure communication between two distant clients with a DSKE-based VPN using Security Hubs on Amazon Web Server (AWS) nodes thousands of kilometres away from them was performed, demonstrating the feasibility of DSKE-enabled secret sharing one-time-pad encryption with a data rate above 50 Mbit/s and a latency below 70 ms.”
