Introduction to Post-Quantum Cryptography

This course offers an in-depth introduction to post-quantum cryptography, the emerging cryptographic standard in secure communication that will soon complement classical cryptography worldwide. You will explore the main techniques for designing and analyzing post-quantum cryptosystems, while tackling the challenges posed by their complex mathematics, larger key sizes, higher communication costs, and the need to defend against quantum adversaries.

Structured into five modules, each featuring lectures and hands-on exercises, the course offers practical experience through Python programming. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of the concepts while experimenting with the design and cryptanalysis of these cryptosystems.

Here’s what you’ll cover:

1. Introduction to Post-Quantum Cryptography & Hash-Based Signatures
2. Multivariate Cryptography & Algebraic Attacks
3. Code-Based Cryptography & Collision-Based Attacks
4. Lattice-Based Cryptography & Fiat-Shamir Signatures
5. Isogeny-Based Cryptography & Quantum Algorithms for Cryptography

Learning objectives

After this course, you will be able to:

1. Recognize, define and describe post-quantum cryptographic schemes;
2. Understand the design principles of the different families of post-quantum cryptography
3. Understand the ideas and mathematics behind post-quantum cryptography
4. Analyze the security of the different families of post-quantum cryptography
5. Apply learned design and cryptanalytic techniques in new situations and to different schemes
6. Evaluate the applicability of cryptanalytic and optimization techniques in different contexts