{"id":291,"date":"2017-02-10T12:27:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T12:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/?p=291"},"modified":"2017-02-22T10:35:50","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T10:35:50","slug":"google-calls-experiment-with-post-quantum-crypto-in-browsers-a-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/dsi-innovation-monitor\/google-calls-experiment-with-post-quantum-crypto-in-browsers-a-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Google calls experiment with post-quantum crypto in browsers a success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s internet security architecture heavily relies on so called public-key cryptography. Without this public-key cryptography, web-traffic encryption does not work and applications such as secure online banking are not be possible.\u00a0 Public-key crypto is well understood and currently no efficient attacks against these cryptographic systems are known. However, already in the 90s Peter Schor was able to show that if a quantum computer can be build all state-of-the-art public-key cryptosystem would become insecure[https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shor<\/a>‘s_algorithm].<\/p>\n

So far no efficient quantum computer has been build and it is still an open question if – and when – a quantum computer efficient enough to break public-key crypto can be built. Currently, quantum technology is a hot research topic and the European Union recently started a big quantum offensive by providing one billion Euro for research in quantum technologies.
\n[https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/digital-single-market\/en\/news\/european-commission-will-launch-eu1-billion-quantum-technologies-flagship]<\/a><\/p>\n

Hence, it makes sense to plan ahead and be ready for the case that efficient quantum computers become available. Therefore a new research direction called post-quantum crypto was established\u00a0 which focuses on public-key crypto that remains secure even in the presence of quantum computers. These algorithms have matured a lot in recent years to a point where they are becoming practical.<\/p>\n

And this is where google comes in: In an experiment announced in July 2016 [https:\/\/security.googleblog.com\/2016\/07\/experimenting-with-post-quantum.html]<\/a> Google integrated the post-quantum algorithm called New Hope [https:\/\/eprint.iacr.org\/2015\/1092]<\/a> into a test version of the Chrome browser. Essentially, they implemented NewHope as an additional Layer around TLS to enable post-quantum secure web-applications.<\/p>\n

The experiment now ended and Google’s Adam Langley calls the experiment a success [https:\/\/www.imperialviolet.org\/2016\/11\/28\/cecpq1.html]:<\/a> While some latency overhead occurred, he concludes that adoption of NewHope or similar post-quantum algorithms into TLS is indeed possible if the need arises. But he also calls for more research before they are ready for a wide deployment.<\/p>\n

Hence, quantum computers do not need to be end of a secure internet. But research in this area should continue and one should not wait until quantum computers are built before standardizing post-quantum crypto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s internet security architecture heavily relies on so called public-key cryptography. Without this public-key cryptography, web-traffic encryption does not work and applications such as secure online banking are not be possible.\u00a0 Public-key crypto is well understood and currently no efficient … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dsi-innovation-monitor"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.org\/dsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}