NIST Developing New Encryption Standards for Quantum, Connected Devices

(FederalTechnology) The National Institute of Standards and Technology is closer to developing two new encryption standards designed to protect the federal government from new and emerging cybersecurity threats.
In a March 20 briefing to the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board, Matthew Scholl, Chief of the Computer Security Division at NIST, said the agency spent much of the past year evaluating 69 algorithms for its Post Quantum Cryptography Standardization project, a 2016 project designed to protect the machines used by federal agencies today from the encryption-breaking tools of tomorrow.
NIST turned to the history books to study previous cryptographic transitions in the federal government and found they were plagued by poor communication, unrealistic timelines and overall confusion regarding expectations. Scholl said the agency is planning to do more proactive outreach to agencies and industry during second round evaluations.
NIST will be able to rely on a rich catalogue of prior cryptographical research, Scholl said. “The nice thing about the program is that many implementations and algorithms have a long history…unlike quantum where attack models are very new and different, lightweight is a more mature space,” he said.