Experimental Benchmarking on Computational Resources of Transitioning to Lattice-Based Post-Quantum Cryptography

บทคัดย่อ

Due to the increasing research and advancement of quantum computing, the current standards of public-key cryptography such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) are becoming increasingly threatened. These algorithms rely on the fact that the mathematical operations required to derive a private key from a public key are computationally infeasible with existing technology and hardware. However, by applying Shor’s algorithm on emerging quantum computing hardware, these operations can be solved efficiently enough to break the public–private key relationship, potentially compromising a large portion of today’s information security infrastructure.

The countdown to quantum computers breaking current cryptographic standards has already begun, as the number of qubits in quantum machines continues to grow. This urgency has driven extensive research into Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), particularly lattice-based cryptographic schemes, which are leading candidates for new standardization by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

This study presents an experimental performance analysis focusing on the transition from conventional cryptography to lattice-based schemes. The experiments evaluate CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium algorithms, benchmarking them against RSA-3072 and ECC-P256 in terms of key generation, encryption/decryption (or signing/verification) time, memory consumption, and key and ciphertext sizes. The results highlight the significant impact on memory usage and bandwidth requirements introduced by lattice-based schemes. Our findings provide insights into the computational and resource implications of transitioning to the new standards of Post-Quantum Cryptography.