Intelligent CIO North America Issue 49 | Page 62

CASE STUDY

Two IBM-developed algorithms have been officially formalized within the world ’ s first three post-quantum cryptography standards published by the US Department of Commerce ’ s National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ).

IBM ’ S MISSION IN QUANTUM COMPUTING IS TWO-FOLD : TO BRING USEFUL QUANTUM COMPUTING TO THE

WORLD AND TO MAKE THE WORLD QUANTUM-SAFE .

The standards include three post-quantum cryptographic algorithms : two of them , ML-KEM ( originally known as CRYSTALS-Kyber ) and ML-DSA ( originally CRYSTALS-Dilithium ) were developed by IBM researchers in collaboration with several industry and academic partners . The third published algorithm , SLH-DSA ( initially submitted as SPHINCS +) was co-developed by a researcher who has since joined IBM . Additionally , a fourth IBM-developed algorithm , FN-DSA ( originally called FALCON ), has been selected for future standardization .
The official publication of these algorithms marks a crucial milestone to advancing the protection of the world ’ s encrypted data from cyberattacks that could be attempted through the unique power of quantum computers , which are rapidly progressing to cryptographic relevancy . This is the point at which quantum computers will harness enough computational power to break the encryption standards underlying most of the world ’ s data and infrastructure today .
“ IBM ’ s mission in quantum computing is two-fold : to bring useful quantum computing to the world and to make the world quantum-safe . We are excited about the incredible progress we have made with today ’ s quantum computers , which are being used across global industries to explore problems as we push towards fully error-corrected systems ,” said Jay Gambetta , Vice President , IBM Quantum . “ However , we understand these advancements could herald an upheaval in the security of our most sensitive data and systems . NIST ’ s publication of the world ’ s first three post-quantum cryptography standards marks a significant step in efforts to build a quantum-safe future alongside quantum computing .”
As an entirely new branch of computing , quantum computers are quickly accelerating to useful and
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