Overview

  • Lecturer: Dominique Unruh
  • Semester: Winter 2024
  • Time: Monday 10:30–12:00 (lecture) • Wednesday 12:30–14:00 (practice) • Thursday 16:30–18:00 (lecture) Not every time, see the “important information” in Moodle for details.
  • Further info: Moodle room. Module data,
  • Rooms: Monday AH2 • Wednesday AH3 • Thursday AH5 (CS Center)
  • Exam: 2025-02-12, 10:30–12:00 • 2025-03-20, 11:30–13:00
  • Prerequisites: Introduction to Quantum Computing or comparable

Description

Cryptographic systems (such as encryption and signatures) are threatened by continued progress in the development of quantum computers. Many encryption and signature schemes used today rely on the difficulty of solving the so-called integer factorization and discrete-logarithm problems. Those can easily be broken using a (hypothetical) quantum computer. We therefore need new cryptosystems that withstand this threat. The development and analysis of such “quantum-safe” cryptosystems is commonly referred to as “post-quantum cryptography”. This lecture will give an introduction into this field.

We will study:

  • Post-quantum secure cryptosystems: basic building blocks and how they are used.
  • Security proofs: How to assure ourselves that the cryptosystems are secure?
  • Existing candidates for future industry standards.

Knowledge from the course Introduction to Quantum Computing will be assumed (but a short recap will be done). Any required quantum knowledge beyond that course will be provided in the lecture.

Materials

Most materials and information are in the Moodle room. However, lecture videos and whiteboards can also be found in this shared folder. A script can be found here (work in progress).

FAQ

  • Will there be materials online / a lecture recording? The content of the whiteboard, homeworks, and similar materials will be available online on this webpage. Submitting homeworks will be possible online. The exam is in person.

  • What form will the exam take? It will be an e-exam (via Dynexite) in person. The exam questions are similar to the e-tests in Moodle (without programming exercises.)