ETSI releases two Technical Reports to support US NIST standards for post-quantum cryptography

Sophia Antipolis, 6 October 2021

In 2016 the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced their intention to develop new standards for post-quantum cryptography. They subsequently initiated a competition-like standardization process with a call for proposals for quantum-safe digital signatures, public-key encryption schemes, and key encapsulation mechanisms. NIST have stated that they intend to select quantum-safe schemes for standardization at the end of the current, third round of evaluation.

The ETSI CYBER Quantum Safe Cryptography committee is pleased to announce the publication of two Technical Reports that give descriptions of each of the candidate schemes in the third round of the NIST standardization process:

The descriptions contained in the reports are not intended to be used as substitutes for the detailed specifications submitted to the NIST process. Instead, the emphasis is on providing unified, concise descriptions of each of the schemes, using consistent notation and terminology, to facilitate understanding and easy comparison.

Both reports contain annexes that provide additional information on important related topics, such as relevant security properties, proofs of security, and costing and cryptanalysis.

The reports are aimed at anyone with an interest in post-quantum cryptography who wants to understand and compare the leading candidates for standardization.