"Brown Mathematicians' Algorithm to Serve as Cryptography Standard for Quantum Computing Era"
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has chosen four cryptography algorithms to serve as public key security standards in the upcoming era of quantum computers, which will render current encryption systems obsolete. Three of the four algorithms were developed based on the work of a team of mathematicians at Brown University composed of professors Jeffrey Hoffstein, Joseph Silverman, and Jill Pipher. The story of the NIST-approved Falcon algorithm and NTRU, the public key cryptosystem on which Falcon is based, started in the mid-1990s when quantum computing was still a science fiction concept. Hoffstein's goal at the time was to develop an algorithm that would simplify and accelerate the operation of traditional cryptographic algorithms. To bring it to market, he co-founded NTRU Cryptosystems Inc. with Silverman and Pipher in 1996. Hoffstein described NTRU's history as a "bloodcurdling saga," but the company eventually found a buyer in Qualcomm. Falcon, which Hoffstein worked on with nine other cryptographers, and two of the three other NIST-selected algorithms are built on the original NTRU framework. This article continues to discuss NIST's selection of three cryptography algorithms that are based on technology devised by a team of experts at Brown University, as well as key points made by Hoffstein regarding public key cryptography, the security challenge that quantum computers pose, and more.