PQ-TLS

The familiar “padlock” that appears in the bar of web browsers when you visit websites whose address is preceded by “https” currently relies on cryptographic primitives that would not stand up to a quantum computer. In 1994, Peter Shor discovered a quantum algorithm capable of breaking schemes like RSA or using elliptic curves.

The evolution of cryptographic standards has already begun. The choice of new primitives using difficult problems on Euclidean networks, corrector codes and hash functions has been made since 2022. Finally, implementation security is still a hot topic, as is the transition from today’s so-called pre-quantum cryptography to post-quantum cryptography.

The aim of the PQ-TLS project is to play a leading role in this evolution, and to ensure that French players in post-quantum cryptography, who are already heavily involved, are in a position to influence the cryptographic standards of the decades to come. Of the 5 standards currently selected, 4 have been proposed in collaboration with French researchers. Similarly, members of the PQ-TLS project have made a major contribution to scheme analysis and research into attacks on these schemes. Major advances have been made by researchers on the security of the SIDH scheme using isogenies and the McEliece scheme using corrector codes.