Trends, challenges and needs for lattice-based cryptography implementations

Abstract

Advances in computing steadily erode computer security at its foundation, calling for fundamental innovations to strengthen the weakening cryptographic primitives and security protocols. At the same time, the emergence of new computing paradigms, such as Cloud Computing and Internet of Everything, demand that innovations in security extend beyond their foundational aspects, to the actual design and deployment of these primitives and protocols while satisfying emerging design constraints such as latency, compactness, energy efficiency, and agility. While many alternatives have been proposed for symmetric key cryptography and related protocols (e.g., lightweight ciphers and authenticated encryption), the alternatives for public key cryptography are limited to post-quantum cryptography primitives and their protocols. In particular, lattice-based cryptography is a promising candidate, both in terms of foundational properties, as well as its application to traditional security problems such as key exchange, digital signature, and encryption/decryption. We summarize trends in lattice-based cryptographic schemes, some fundamental recent proposals for the use of lattices in computer security, challenges for their implementation in software and hardware, and emerging needs.