CSC News

How Secure are Digital Signatures in the Quantum World?

Dr. Alessandra Scafuro, assistant professor of computer science at NC State University, has been awarded $96,752 by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to support her research proposal entitled “Analysis of Hash-Based Signatures Schemes in the QROM.”

The award runs from December 1, 2017 to December 31, 2018. 

Abstract – Digital signatures are fundamental cryptographic building blocks that guarantee the authenticity and integrity of digital communications. Currently adopted signature schemes (such as ECDSA) leverage number-theoretic properties, and their security relies on the intractability of solving number-theoretic problems such as integer factorization and the discrete logarithm problem. Shor's algorithm, however, shows that such problems are practically solvable on quantum computers.

The threat of quantum attacks triggered NIST's competition for the development and standardization of signature schemes that are secure in presence of quantum adversaries.  There exist several candidates for post-quantum secure digital signatures.  The goal of this project is to formally analyze the post-quantum security of LM signature schemes.

For more information on Dr. Scafuro, click here.

~coates~