Linux Foundation announced about the creation of an alliance Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQCA), aimed at solving security problems associated with the implementation of quantum computing, through the development and implementation of post-quantum encryption algorithms. The Alliance plans to prepare highly reliable implementations of standardized post-quantum encryption algorithms, provide their development and maintenance, and also participate in the standardization and creation of prototypes of new post-quantum algorithms.
The alliance's founding members included Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Google, IBM, NVIDIA, IntellectEU, Keyfactor, Kudelski IoT, QuSecure and SandboxAQ, as well as the University of Waterloo. It is noted that among the participants in the initiative there are co-authors of the CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, Falcon and SPHINCS+ algorithms that are resistant to selection on a quantum computer, selected for standardization by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
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Currently, two projects have been transferred under the auspices of the alliance:
- Open Quantum Safe (OQS) – is engaged in the development and creation of prototypes of cryptographic systems resistant to quantum computing. The project is developing an open C library liboqs with implementation post-quantum algorithmsand collection of projects on integrating these algorithms into various protocols (SSH, TLS, S/MIME and X.509) and applications (OpenSSL, OpenSSHmbedTLS, wolfSSL, strongSwan, BoringSSL, libssh).
- PQ Code Package – aims to create and maintain highly reliable implementations of post-quantum algorithms promoted as standards. At the first stage it is planned to provide an implementation of the algorithm ML-KEM (Module-Lattice-Based Key Encapsulation Mechanism), after which work will begin on the implementation ML-DSA And SLH-DSA. To confirm the reliability of the implementations, it is planned to conduct an independent external audit and perform formal verification. In addition, there is interest in continuing the development of existing ML-KEM implementations on Si And Rustas well as variants optimized using AVX2 instructions and Aarch64 CPU extensions.
The need to promote post-quantum cryptoalgorithms is due to the fact that quantum computers, which have been actively developing recently, are radically faster decide problems of decomposition of a natural number into prime factors (RSA, DSA) and discrete logarithm of elliptic curve points (ECDSA), which form the basis of modern asymmetric public key encryption algorithms and cannot be effectively solved on classical processors. At the current stage of development, the capabilities of quantum computers are not yet sufficient to crack current classical encryption algorithms and digital signatures based on public keys, such as ECDSA, but it is assumed that the situation may change within 10 years.
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