Collaborative Research: SaTC: TTP: Medium: NextGenPQ: Post-quantum Schemes for Next Generation Applications

量子计算的进步使传统密码学以及我们的整个计算和通信基础设施处于危险之中。这一威胁如此紧迫，以至于美国国家标准与技术研究所（NIST）在2018年启动了一项标准化竞赛，以选择一个或多个所谓的后量子（PQ）方案。预计未来十年内，传统的加密技术在应用中将被PQ方案取代。不幸的是，升级是有代价的，因为PQ方案需要显着增加数字签名和公钥大小。研究人员团队正在解决这个问题。该项目的新颖之处是能够聚合PQ签名的新技术。该项目的影响是降低传感器网络、5G系统、物联网设备和区块链等应用的能耗和频谱效率。调查分为两个研究模块。第一个模块的重点是开发现有的PQ签名算法的聚合扩展。本模块中的工作包括对扩展进行全面的安全分析，以及为安全高效的构建选择参数。第二个模块研究新的PQ签名方案，允许更有效的聚合。本模块将建立在同态签名方案的最新工作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The proliferation of advances in quantum computing has put traditional cryptography and our entire computing and communications infrastructure in danger. The threat is so urgent that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) started a standardization competition in 2018 to select one or more so-called Post-Quantum (PQ) schemes. Traditional cryptographic techniques are expected to be replaced by PQ-schemes in applications during the next decade. Unfortunately, the upgrade comes at a cost since PQ-schemes require significant increases in digital signature and public key sizes. The team of researchers tackle this very problem. The project's novelties are new techniques to enable aggregation of PQ signatures. The project's impacts are reduced energy consumption and spectrum efficiency in applications such as sensor networks, 5G systems, IoT devices, and Blockchains.The investigation is structured in two research modules. The first module focuses on developing aggregation extensions to existing PQ signature algorithms. The work in this module includes a thorough security analysis of the extensions, and selection of parameters for secure and efficient construction. The second module investigates new PQ signature schemes that allow more efficient aggregation. This module will build on the recent works on homomorphic signature schemes. The security and performance of the developed signature schemes will be scrutinized and compared to existing schemes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.