[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 148 (Tuesday, August 2, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50686-50687]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-18150]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No. 160606494-6494-01]


Request for Comments on Post-Quantum Cryptography Requirements 
and Evaluation Criteria

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is 
requesting comments on a proposed process to solicit, evaluate, and 
standardize one or more quantum-resistant public-key cryptographic 
algorithms. Current algorithms are vulnerable to attacks from large-
scale quantum computers. The purpose of this notice is to solicit 
comments on the draft minimum acceptability requirements, submission 
requirements, evaluation criteria, and evaluation process of candidate 
algorithms from the public, the cryptographic community, academic/
research communities, manufacturers, voluntary standards organizations, 
and Federal, state, and local government organizations so that their 
needs can be considered in the process of developing new public-key 
cryptography standards. The draft requirements and evaluation criteria 
are available on the NIST Computer Security Resource Center Web site: 
http://www.nist.gov/pqcrypto.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 16, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent electronically to [email protected] 
with ``Comment on Post-Quantum Cryptography Requirements and Evaluation 
Criteria'' in the subject line. Written comments may also be submitted 
by mail to Information Technology Laboratory, ATTN: Post-Quantum 
Cryptography Comments, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 
100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8930, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930.
    Comments received in response to this notice will be published 
electronically at http://www.nist.gov/pqcrypto, so commenters should 
not include information they do not wish to be posted (e.g., personal 
or confidential business information).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Lily Chen, National Institute of 
Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8930, 
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930, email: [email protected], by telephone 
(301) 975-6974.
    Technical inquiries regarding the proposed draft acceptability 
requirements, submission requirements, or the evaluation criteria 
should be sent electronically to [email protected].
    A public email list-serve has been set up for announcements, as 
well as a forum to discuss the standardization effort being initiated 
by NIST. For directions on how to subscribe, please visit http://www.nist.gov/pqcrypto.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In recent years, there has been a 
substantial amount of research on quantum computers--machines that 
exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to solve mathematical problems 
that are difficult or intractable for conventional computers. If large-
scale quantum computers are ever built, they will compromise the 
security of many commonly used cryptographic algorithms. In particular, 
quantum computers would completely break many public-key cryptosystems, 
including those standardized in FIPS 186-4, Digital Signature Standard 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.FIPS.186-4), SP 800-56A Revision 2, 
Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key Establishment Schemes Using Discrete 
Logarithm Cryptography (http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-56Ar2), 
and SP 800-56B Revision 1, Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key-
Establishment Schemes Using Integer Factorization Cryptography (http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-56Br1).
    Due to this concern, many researchers have begun to investigate 
post-quantum cryptography (PQC) (also called quantum-resistant 
cryptography). The goal of this research is to develop cryptographic 
algorithms that would be secure against both quantum and classical 
computers. A significant effort will be required in order to develop, 
standardize, and deploy new post-quantum algorithms. In addition, this 
transition needs to take place well before any large-scale quantum 
computers are built, so that any information that is later compromised 
by quantum cryptanalysis is no longer sensitive when that compromise 
occurs.
    NIST has taken a number of steps in response to this potential 
threat. On April 2-3, 2015, NIST held a public workshop on 
Cybersecurity in a Post-Quantum World to solicit input on public-key 
cryptographic policy in the time of quantum computers. NIST also 
published NISTIR 8105, Report on Post-Quantum Cryptography (http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8105), in April 2016 which shares NIST's 
understanding of the status of quantum computing and post-quantum 
cryptography.
    As a result of study and public feedback, NIST has decided to 
develop additional public-key cryptographic algorithms through a public 
standardization process, similar to the development processes for the 
hash function SHA-3 and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). To 
begin the process, NIST has drafted a set of minimum acceptability 
requirements, submission requirements, and evaluation criteria for 
candidate algorithms. The draft document containing these requirements 
and criteria is available at the Web site: http://www.nist.gov/pqcrypto. NIST seeks comments on these draft minimum acceptability 
requirements, submission requirements, evaluation criteria, and the 
evaluation process, as well as suggestions for other criteria and for 
the relative importance of each individual criterion in the evaluation 
process. Since neither the submission requirements nor the evaluation 
criteria have been finalized, and may evolve over time as a result of 
the public comments that NIST receives, candidate algorithms should NOT 
be submitted at this time.

    Authority: In accordance with the Information Technology 
Management Reform Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-106) and the Federal 
Information Security Management Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-347), the 
Secretary of Commerce is authorized to approve FIPS. NIST activities 
to develop computer security standards to protect federal sensitive 
(unclassified) information systems are undertaken pursuant to 
specific responsibilities assigned to NIST by Section 20 of the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278g-
3), as amended.


[[Page 50687]]


    Dated: July 27, 2016.
Kent Rochford,
Associate Director for Laboratory Programs.
[FR Doc. 2016-18150 Filed 8-1-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-13-P