Security evaluations of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) primitives

Action launched by the ECCC to incorporate ‘expected impact’ language set out in the ‘Destination – Increased Cybersecurity’ section of this work programme part.

Destination - Increased Cybersecurity

The strategic plan 2025-2027 identifies the following impact: "Increased cybersecurity and a more secure online environment by developing and using effectively EU and Member States’ capabilities in digital technologies supporting protection of data and networks aspiring to technological sovereignty in this field, while respecting privacy and other fundamental rights; this should contribute to secure services, processes and products, as well as to robust digital infrastructures capable to resist and counter cyber-attacks and hybrid threats".

Under this Work Programme, the Commission intends to conclude a contribution agreement entrusting the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) with the implementation of call topics related to Increased Cybersecurity. Please refer to "Indirectly managed action by the ECCC" in the section "Other Actions" of this Work Programme part – including the Appendix providing the call specifications for information purposes. Those specifications incorporate ‘expected impacts’ set out below.

Expected impacts:

• Support the EU’s technological capabilities by investing in cybersecurity research and innovation to further strengthen its leadership, strategic autonomy, digital sovereignty and resilience;
• Help protect its infrastructures and improve its ability to prevent, protect against, respond to, resist, mitigate, absorb, accommodate and recover from cyber and hybrid incidents, especially given the current context of geopolitical change;
• Support European competitiveness in cybersecurity and European strategic autonomy, by protecting EU products and digital supply chains, as well as critical EU services and infrastructures (both physical and digital) to ensure their robustness and continuity in the face of severe disruptions;
• Encourage the development of the European Cybersecurity Competence Community;
• Particular attention will be given to SMEs, who play a crucial role in the cybersecurity ecosystem and in overall EU digital single market competitiveness, by promoting security and privacy ‘by design’ in existing and emerging technologies.

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

• Breakthroughs in understanding the quantum hardness of various mathematical problem classes that underpin the security of current and future post-quantum cryptosystems;
• New quantum algorithms with significant quantum speed-up for lattice-based, code-based, and potentially other mathematical problem-classes;
• Improved implementation of quantum algorithms using high-level quantum programming languages to solve mathematical problems forming the core of cryptosystems;
• Establishment of environments testing the robustness of cryptosystems regarding quantum attackers;
• AI-based approaches to help discovering vulnerabilities of lattice-based or other mathematical problem-classes;
• Cryptanalysis results;
• Parameter suggestions to create a robust set of cryptographic building blocks for post-quantum cybersecurity and design of post-quantum cryptosystems with improved security against quantum or AI-based attacks.

The intrinsic security of PQC algorithms is based on mathematical problems that are believed to be intractable for both classical and quantum computers. To assess the quantum security of post-quantum primitives is fundamental in order to boost our confidence on post-quantum cryptosystems. The development of quantum algorithms demonstrating a significant quantum speed-up would represent a major breakthrough, necessitating a reassessment of the security of cryptosystems (lattice-based, code-based, and others). Conversely, if no significant quantum speed-up is discovered, it would bolster our confidence in the security of these post-quantum cryptosystems, though some parameters may still require fine-tuning. Moreover, up to now existing quantum attackers have been analyzed mostly in a theoretical way. However, their application to nowadays cryptosystems fail due to a lack of efficient implementations and hardware. Studies are also needed on AI-based approaches that may be used to attack certain schemes with certain implementation choices, and the discovery of eventual vulnerabilities can help the research community develop more robust post-quantum cryptosystems.

Proposals on the assessment of the security of post-quantum primitives, via studies focused on eventual quantum algorithms with demonstrable speed-up, eventually also in combination with AI, or on solely AI-based approaches, are welcome. The security of lattice and code-based PQC algorithms may be prioritized, but tackling other mathematical problem classes is not excluded. As the unprecedented computational power of quantum computing can greatly enhance AI capabilities, combination of different approaches may also be considered. Consortia with team of applicants with background in post-quantum cryptography and in quantum computing are particularly encouraged. Projects should lead to identification of vulnerabilities of current post-quantum cryptographic building blocks and to practical recommendations for parameters for the design of post-quantum cryptosystems with improved security against quantum attacks and future advances in code-breaking and AI.