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Cryptography

A woman drawing on a whiteboard
November 12, 2021 – Virginia Tech senior Nivedita “Nivi” Ramalingam works on a project in the CMDA student lounge in the Old Security Building. Nivi is majoring in Computer Science and Computational Modeling and Data Analytics and studying Cryptography and Cybersecurity. (Photo by Christina Franusich/Virginia Tech).

Encrypting for a quantum future

Cryptography secures our electronic communications. Cryptographic protocols in place today are believed to be secure against attacks using classical computers, but if an adversary builds a large-scale quantum computer, they will be able to break all currently deployed cryptosystems.

To prepare for this, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is currently running a public process to standardize quantum-secure cryptosystems. These systems will be resistant to both classical and quantum adversaries. CCI SWVA programs are generalizing, improving, and implementing quantum-secure cryptosystems.

CCI SWVA cryptography research programs focus on:

  • Developing efficient hardware implementations of cryptoanalysis and building out resilience to side-channel attacks.
  • Bridging the gap between theoretical results and applications of polar coding, a new communication paradigm that supports 5G technology.
  • Developing cryptographic tools, algorithms, and learning programs to ensure data integrity and protection from quantum threats.

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