Motivation: The Unseen Bedrock of Modern Life

Cybersecurity and cryptography are the invisible, essential foundations of the modern digital world. Every day, billions of transactions and communications rely on complex mathematical puzzles to ensure confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, privacy and even more security features.

For example, when you log into your bank account, cryptography secures your password and encrypts the communication channel (HTTPS), ensuring that no eavesdropper can steal your financial data or impersonate you. When you send a message on a private app (like WhatsApp), end-to-end encryption ensures only the intended recipient can read the content. Even the digital signature on a software update uses cryptography to confirm that the file is authentic and has not been tampered with by an attacker. These systems build digital trust, which is vital for the global economy and personal privacy.

The Quantum Threat

This bedrock of security is facing an existential threat from the imminent development of large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers. Current public-key cryptosystems, such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), rely on mathematical problems (like factoring large numbers) that are computationally infeasible for classical computers. However, quantum computers, using algorithms like Shor's, could solve these problems in minutes or hours, rendering our current digital security infrastructure obsolete.

This creates the strategic risk of a "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" attack, where adversaries steal and store currently encrypted, sensitive data (like medical records, state secrets, and financial details) today, anticipating that they will be able to decrypt it once powerful quantum machines are available. Data that needs to remain confidential for decades—including defense, health, and intellectual property—is already vulnerable.

Project Scope and Objectives

This project "Cybersecurity and Cryptography in the Quantum Age" aims to develop new tools required to secure digital systems against this impending threat. It focuses on the shift from traditional (quantum-vulnerable) cryptography to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).

The development can involve different aspects ranging from more foundational design (more mathematical) to more application/implementation side (less mathematical).

Please feel free to reach out to me via email if you're interested in pursuing an honours/masters research project with me.