Securing Edge Devices in the Post-Quantum Internet of Things Using Lattice-Based Cryptography

In order to increase the security of edge computing, all data transmitted to and from edge devices, as well as all data stored on edge devices, must be encrypted. Especially when the transmitted or stored data contains sensitive personal information, long-term protection over periods of ten or more years may be required, which can only be achieved with post-quantum cryptography. This article first gives a brief overview of post-quantum public-key cryptosystems based on hard mathematical problems related to hash functions, error-correcting codes, multivariate quadratic systems, and lattices. Then the suitability of lattice-based cryptosystems for resource-constrained devices is discussed and efficient implementations for 8 and 32-bit microcontrollers are outlined.