China has announced that it will spurn US-led efforts to develop encryption algorithms that are resistant to quantum computers, instead choosing to develop its own standards. This may be because China doesn’t want to use algorithms developed in the US in case they contain secret “back doors” allowing access by US intelligence agencies – or it could be that the country wants to develop algorithms with its own back doors. The encryption algorithms we use to protect data today are practically impossible for even the largest supercomputers to crack, but when quantum computers become reliable and powerful enough, they will be at risk. Because of this, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been running a project since 2012 to standardise a new generation of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms to protect against this risk. Now, China’s Institute of Commercial Cryptography Standards (ICCS) has launched its own efforts to develop PQC algorithms, aiming to create standards for Chinese government departments and companies. One expert in developing technology standards, who works with NIST but asked to remain anonymous, says that NIST is largely transparent, but that it should be remembered that it works closely with the necessarily opaque US National Security Agency (NSA).

Full report : Efforts to develop next-generation cryptography algorithms that can’t be broken by quantum computers are already underway in the US, but now China has announced it will seek its own solutions.