Quantum-safe cryptography: Securing today’s data against tomorrow’s computers

As the world prepares for the advent of the quantum computer, the security community must also prepare to defend against it. Most of the cryptography currently in use succumbs to quantum attacks. Although quantum computers are still a decade or so away from becoming a reality, existing communications are already at risk: Encrypted data can be recorded today and decrypted with the help of a quantum computer in the future.

In this webinar, Principal Program Manager Christian Paquin, a cryptography specialist in the Security and Cryptography group at Microsoft Research, will present recent progress in the development of quantum-safe cryptography. Quantum-safe cryptography is being developed using mathematical problems believed to be more difficult for a quantum computer to solve than such existing methods as factoring and discrete logarithms. Paquin will discuss quantum-safe cryptography’s standardization by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, its implementation in the Open Quantum Safe project, and results from recent experiments integrating it into the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, and virtual private networks (VPNs).

Together, you’ll explore:

The impact of quantum computers on today’s widely used cryptography
New types of quantum-resistant problems being proposed
The results of experiments integrating quantum-safe cryptography into TLS, SSH, and VPNs and the benefits of such experiments in helping to prepare for the transition to post-quantum cryptography
The benefit of a hybrid of classical and quantum-safe schemes in early migrations

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