As organizations look to upgrade their IT infrastructure to make their communications quantum safe, one of the approaches is to implement a hybrid classical/quantum approach. This combines together both classical algorithms with quantum algorithms to provide added protection against attacks against both the classical and quantum public key encryption. This significantly increases the difficulty for an attacker because they would need to break both the algorithms before they could get access to the encryption key.
To this end, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has launched a new post-quantum security standard, Efficient Quantum-Safe Hybrid Key Exchanges with Hidden Access Policies (ETSI TS 104 015), to protect critical data and communications against current and future threats, including quantum computing capabilities. The specification introduces “Covercrypt,” a hybrid Key Encapsulation Mechanism with Access Control (KEMAC) that ensures both pre-quantum and post-quantum security. Covercrypt uses user attributes to anonymously lock and access session keys based on specific policies, enhancing data decryption controls within applications.
This efficient solution boasts impressive performance, encapsulating and decapsulating session keys in mere microseconds. ETSI emphasizes the importance of quantum-resistant encryption for safeguarding sensitive information, adapting to emerging threats, and complying with evolving standards. Covercrypt enables seamless integration into existing commercial security products, providing organizations with future-proof data protection. This marks a significant milestone in advancing post-quantum cryptography and securing sensitive information for decades to come.
For more about this new standard, view a press release provided by ETSI announcing this new standard here and download the full specific of ETS TS 104 015 from here.
March 26, 2025
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