Scroll Top

Quantum Computing

In recent years, quantum computing has emerged as the next major technological revolution. Although it is still at an early stage and faces significant challenges, its enormous potential and main applications can already be foreseen.

Quantum computing is also expected to revolutionize the field of cybersecurity. On one hand, quantum mechanics opens the door to novel cryptographic schemes. Among these, and as described in [1], quantum key distribution (QKD) stands out as the most mature and promising approach, enabling the secure exchange of cryptographic keys with provable, information-theoretic security rooted in the fundamental laws of quantum physics. However, for QKD to move beyond niche applications and achieve widespread adoption, significant advancements are needed in key enabling technologies; most notably, in quantum memory [2], which remains a critical bottleneck in practical implementations. Likewise, due to the inherent randomness of quantum systems, it will be possible to generate high-quality random numbers, which are crucial for cryptography. However, the other side of quantum systems lies in their ability to drastically reduce the security level of current cryptographic schemes, especially affecting public-key primitives. This has led to the development of post-quantum cryptography, also known as quantum-resistant cryptography, since they are capable of withstanding quantum attacks. We have been closely following the proposals from the NIST competitions and analyzing the fundamental differences of the mathematical models on which each of them is based [3] [4].

Research lines

Previous research lines

At NICS Lab, we also are working on the challenge of adapting current security systems to these novel cryptographic primitives, which requires significant research and engineering effort. For example, some post-quantum primitives use keys much larger than those of current schemes and can even produce digital signatures several orders of magnitude larger. This can significantly impact communication protocols, especially in environments with high error rates or where participants have limited resources.

In particular, we have focused on analyzing the impact of post-quantum cryptographic primitives in different security-critical scenarios. In [5] we developed a benchmarking tool to estimate the cost of integrating post-quantum algorithms into Ethereum-based blockchains. Similarly, we have worked on a framework to facilitate the transition to a quantum-resistant Internet [6]. This framework allows different post-quantum primitives to be integrated into existing protocols and tested under identical conditions, ensuring fair comparisons between them. While our efforts so far have concentrated on the TLS protocol, we are currently extending the framework to support other security protocols.

Furthermore, we have contributed to the development of liboqs, an open-source library containing quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms developed by the Open Quantum Safe (OQS) project. Currently, we have focused on improving the documentation and benchmarking of the key encapsulation mechanisms and digital signatures included in the library [7]. Moving forward, we will continue to contribute to various lines of work within the library depending on the needs of the project.

References

  1. Fernando Javier Lopez Cerezo (2025): Quantum Key Distribution. NICS Lab Technical Report, 2025.
  2. Osiris Garcı́a Parras (2025): Quantum Memory. NICS Lab Technical Report, 2025.
  3. Enrique Pérez Haro and Pablo Gutiérrez Félix (2025): Lattice-Based Post-Quantum Cryptography. NICS Lab Technical Report, 2025.
  4. Fernando Javier Lopez Cerezo (2025): Hash-based Cryptography. NICS Lab Technical Report, 2025.
  5. Patxi Juaristi and Isaac Agudo and Ruben Rios and Laura Ricci (2025): Benchmarking post-quantum cryptography in Ethereum-based blockchains. In: 8th International Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology (CBT 2024), pp. 340-353, Springer, Bydgoszcz, Poland, 2025, ISBN: 978-3-031-82348-0.
  6. Ruben Rios and Jose A. Montenegro and Antonio Muñoz and Davide Ferraris (2025): Toward the Quantum-Safe Web: Benchmarking Post-Quantum TLS. In: IEEE Network, Forthcoming, ISSN: 0890-8044.

7.

Pablo Gutierrez. liboqs: C Library for Prototyping and Experimenting with Quantum-Resistant Cryptography. In: GitHub, 2025. Available at: https://github.com/pablo-gf/liboqs