New survey article: Quantum Advantage in Cryptography
In a new survey article, Ramona Wolf and Renato Renner reply to a recent publication by the NSA, raising five main challenges for QKD that have to be overcome before its use can be recommended.
The recent publication by the NSA is available at external page https://www.nsa.gov/Cybersecurity/Quantum-Key-Distribution-QKD-and-Quantum-Cryptography-QC.
Article reference:
Renato Renner and Ramona Wolf, Quantum Advantage in Cryptography, AIAA Journal, external page https://doi.org/10.2514/1.J062267 (2023).
Article abstract:
Ever since its inception, cryptography has been caught in a vicious circle: cryptographers keep inventing methods to hide information, and cryptanalysts break them, prompting cryptographers to invent even more sophisticated encryption schemes, and so on. But could it be that quantum information technology breaks this circle? At first sight, it looks as if it just lifts the competition between cryptographers and cryptanalysts to the next level. Indeed, quantum computers will render most of today’s public key cryptosystems insecure. Nonetheless, there are good reasons to believe that cryptographers will ultimately prevail over cryptanalysts. Quantum cryptography allows us to build communication schemes whose secrecy relies only on the laws of physics and some minimum assumptions about the cryptographic hardware - leaving basically no room for an attack. While we are not yet there, this paper provides an overview of the principles and state-of-the-art of quantum cryptography, as well as an assessment of current challenges and prospects for overcoming them.