Post quantum crypto­gra­phy (classi­cal quantum safe cryptography)

While quantum crypto­gra­phy offers physics-based security, most systems will conti­nue to rely on software-based public-key crypto­gra­phy (PKC) for authen­ti­ca­tion and key estab­lish­ment. Post-quantum crypto­gra­phy (PQC) develops new PKC schemes designed to remain secure even against large-scale quantum compu­ters. A promi­nent example is lattice-based crypto­gra­phy, in which keys and messa­ges are encoded as points in high-dimen­sio­nal grids. Recove­ring the hidden struc­ture from a noisy point without a suita­ble lattice basis is belie­ved to be hard for both classi­cal and quantum attackers. PQC algorithms run on existing proces­sors and can be deployed through proto­col and firmware upgrades. Standar­diza­tion efforts led by the U.S. Natio­nal Insti­tute of Standards and Techno­logy (NIST) aim to provide PQC primi­ti­ves that can replace current public-key encryption.