NIST Standards Include Kyber, Dilithium, and SPHINCS+ for Post-Quantum Cryptography

The American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has selected security algorithms CRYSTALS-KYBER, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, and SPHINCS+ as new standards for post-quantum cryptography. The underlying technology must ensure that the encryption of sensitive communication will remain secure.

The three algorithms were created by an international team, including Peter Schwabe, professor of Cryptographic Engineering at Radboud University, collaborating with researchers of TU/Eindhoven and Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI). The NIST PQC standardization project paves the way for the next generation of encryption and signature algorithms.

Researchers at Radboud University have been involved in key security standards more than once in recent decades. Joan Daemen, a professor associated with Radboud University since 2015, is co-author of the Rijndael algorithm that NIST selected as the winner of an earlier cryptography competition for the Advanced Encryption Standard, or AES, in 2000. We still use this standard today to secure websites and encrypted WhatsApp messages.