Quantum Archivi

New post-quantum digital signature proposals: the second NIST competition

Introduction In July 2023, NIST announced four winning algorithms in the post-quantum competition, marking an important step forward in the transition process. The selected algorithms were CRYSTALS-Kyber for key negotiation...

Falcon: digital signature based on NTRU

31 Jul

Introduction NIST’s Post-Quantum standardization process has identified two cryptographic schemes based on lattice theory within digital signatures: CRYSTALS-Dilithium and Falcon. Within modern cryptographic communication protocols, these solutions will replace the...

CRYSTALS-Dilithium: LWE-based digital signature

31 May

Introduction NIST’s Post-Quantum standardization process identified two cryptographic schemes to be intended as “primary” solutions. With regard to Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs), key derivation schemes, CRYSTALS-Kyber was selected, while from...

CRYSTALS-Kyber: LWE-based key encapsulation

08 May

Abstract In the context of the NIST standardization process for identifying and analyzing Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) solutions, the first crucial outcome is the selection of the key encapsulation mechanism (KEM)...

The Math Behind PQC: Learning With Errors

27 Mar

Introduction Some of the winning cryptographic schemes in the NIST standardization process belonging to the latex-based cryptography family are constructed from a problem called Learning With Errors (LWE). Given a...

The mathematics behind PQC: lattices

15 Feb

Introduction A large number of post-quantum cryptography schemes are built on a mathematical structure called “lattice“, on which hard-to-solve problems can be defined even for a quantum computer. Cryptosystems belonging...

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and security

12 Dec

In the collective imagination, quantum computing has been relegated to science fiction for many years, but thanks to recent developments in technologies and substantial investments by major players, we are...

Key Negotiation in the Post-Quantum Era

09 Sep

Introduction Cryptography, understood as the set of information protection schemes, is typically divided into symmetric or private key cryptography and asymmetric or public key cryptography. Schemes or protocols that exploit...

Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC): a classical solution to the quantum threat

13 Jul

Introduction Public key (or asymmetric) cryptography is one of the bases on which all communication protocols rest which, starting from an insecure channel, must achieve multiple security properties, such as...

Shor’s Quantum Algorithm

29 Mar

Introduction Among the numerous applications of the quantum computing model, the most relevant in the cryptographic field is represented by the work of the American computer scientist Peter W. Shor....