[Cryptography] NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Round 1 Submissions Posted

[grarpamp]

https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/Post-Quantum-Cryptography
~93 zipfiles

Background

In recent years, there has been a substantial amount of research on
quantum computers – machines that exploit quantum mechanical phenomena
to solve mathematical problems that are difficult or intractable for
conventional computers. If large-scale quantum computers are ever
built, they will be able to break many of the public-key cryptosystems
currently in use. This would seriously compromise the confidentiality
and integrity of digital communications on the Internet and elsewhere.
The goal of post-quantum cryptography (also called quantum-resistant
cryptography) is to develop cryptographic systems that are secure
against both quantum and classical computers, and can interoperate
with existing communications protocols and networks.

The question of when a large-scale quantum computer will be built is a
complicated one. While in the past it was less clear that large
quantum computers are a physical possibility, many scientists now
believe it to be merely a significant engineering challenge. Some
engineers even predict that within the next twenty or so years
sufficiently large quantum computers will be built to break
essentially all public key schemes currently in use. Historically, it
has taken almost two decades to deploy our modern public key
cryptography infrastructure.  Therefore, regardless of whether we can
estimate the exact time of the arrival of the quantum computing era,
we must begin now to prepare our information security systems to be
able to resist quantum computing.