LuxTrust S.A. and the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) have announced a new collaborative research partnership to investigate new cryptographic algorithms, which are resistant against the impact of quantum computers.
Quantum computers are a completely new type of computer that exploit physical phenomena of quantum mechanics. According to the engineering progress made during the last few years, it is very likely that large-scale quantum computers will be built within the next decade. When this happens, quantum computers will achieve a computation power that goes far beyond that of any classical super computer in the world can perform today.
It has already been shown in the past that quantum computers will be able to easily break any type of currently used public key cryptography, based on algorithms of RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) or on elliptic curves. Even augmenting key sizes for those algorithms will not help due to the exponentially growing computation power of quantum computers compared to classic computers that rely on the electrical effects of semi-conductors.
New quantum-computing resistant cryptography and particularly new public key algorithms that LuxTrust needs to ensure continuity of its trust services, such as the creation of electronic signatures, have already been proposed by researchers. They are currently analysed by various international experts and institutions like the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States (NIST).
LuxTrust and SnT join their resources and share their expertise to analyse the most promising post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms and to prepare the transition from the core mechanisms of LuxTrust’s currently used technology to the post-quantum era. This joint engagement will ensure seamless continuity of the trust services and the security provided by LuxTrust, so that online banking and electronic contract signing will remain safe when quantum computers arrive.
“Being able to innovate and invest in research are vital to stay relevant and to offer state-of-the-art digital solutions. We are confident that thanks to the expertise of SnT researchers we will deliver practical solutions or answers to real industry challenges that will further benefit clients using our digital services”, explained Fabrice Aresu, Chief Executive Officer of LuxTrust.
“Developing resistant cryptography - in preparation for when quantum computers become more widely available - is a challenge that a lot of industries now face as a priority. We are very enthusiastic to help LuxTrust in this endeavour, and enable them to maintain their impeccable standards of customer security into the next era of computing,” added Carlo Duprel, Head of the Technology Transfer Office at SnT.
