Sophia Antipolis, 28 October 2014
ETSI, in partnership with the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), organized its second Quantum-Safe Crypto workshop on 6-7 October in Ottawa, Canada. The workshop was aimed at developing short and medium term objectives needed to reach the goal of a quantum-safe cryptographic infrastructure. Indeed since quantum computers will be able to break certain cryptographic keys, it is then essential to work on a quantum-safe system.
High level experts from government, academia, research centers and industry discussed how cryptography is indispensable for cybersecurity and why quantum-safe cryptography and security protocols matter for Europe.
Luis Jorge Romero, Director General at ETSI opened and closed the workshop highlighting the need to bring together the communities of conventional cryptography and of quantum-safe cryptography.
Use cases for Quantum Key Distribution introduced several application fields such as national security, healthcare networks, critical infrastructure, mobile devices or the financial sector. The workshop also pointed out the technology advances in this area over the last few years in terms of security and networks.
Discussion topics also included hash functions for digital signatures, multivariate functions and Quantum Key Distribution where ETSI’s role is prominent in terms of standardization through its Industry Specification Group on the subject.