Security News > 2022 > July > NIST selects four encryption algorithms to thwart future quantum computer attacks

The Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology has chosen four encryption algorithms that are designed to withstand the hacking of a future quantum computer and protect digital information.

NIST said all four of the algorithms were created by experts collaborating from multiple countries and institutions.

The additional four algorithms still under consideration are designed for general encryption and do not use structured lattices or hash functions in their approaches, NIST said.

The announcement follows a six-year effort managed by NIST, who issued a call to cryptographers around the world in 2016 to devise and then vet encryption methods that could resist an attack from a future quantum computer that is more powerful than the comparatively limited machines available today.

Four additional algorithms are under consideration for inclusion in the standard, and NIST said it will announce the finalists from that round at a future time.

A sufficiently capable quantum computer, which would be based on different technology than today's conventional computers, could solve these math problems quickly, defeating encryption systems, NIST said.

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https://www.techrepublic.com/article/nist-encryption-algorithms/