PROMETHEUS

Introduction

PROMETHEUS deals with privacy-preserving cryptographic primitives and protocols in the post-quantum setting. Privacy-preserving cryptography aims at allowing users to take daily actions online (payments, voting, metro rides, hotel reservations, etc) without revealing too much information about themselves (e.g., their habits, political opinions, or whereabouts).

Most known cryptographic solutions would become obsolete, should large-scale quantum computers become reality. The project aims at efficient quantum-resistant solutions. It deals with both theoretical aspects (provable security under well-studied hardness assumptions) and practical ones (efficient implementations, resistance to side-channel attacks).

Who is the project designed for?

The project involves acadamic and industrial partners. It involves companies (e.g., Orange, IBM, Thales, ...) that are interested in privacy-enhancing cryptographic techniques, start-ups in the buisiness of e-voting (Scytl), and academic scientists conducting more theoretical research.

How is your project benefitting the end-user?

Everyone can potentially benefit from the results of the project. The privacy concerns raised by working quantum computers would affect whoever is using the Internet.

Please briefly describe the results your project achieved so far

The project has started in January 2018. So far, some results (published in Eurocrypt 2018) have shown how to secure a family of quantum-resistant signature schemes against certain side-channel leakages.

What are the next steps for your project?

The next steps are to provide up-to-date surveys of existing solutions and their limitations. Then, we will provide new solutions that avoid those limitations (mainly a lack of efficiency and very large key sizes).