The University of 91视频鈥檚 Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing is joining forces with Cisco Research and leading researchers from Purdue, Rutgers and Northeastern to prepare for the next wave of cyberthreats in post-quantum cybersecurity.
The collaboration, funded by a $50,000 Cisco research grant, brings together experts from academia and industry to develop quantum-resistant networks and protocols, vital defenses against the kinds of attacks quantum computers could unleash in the future.
The research grant, 鈥淨uantum-Resistant Networks and Systems: Primitives, Protocols, and Best Practices,鈥� was awarded to a group of faculty from four major universities: Principal Investigator Elisa Bertino at Purdue, Jaideep Vaidya at Rutgers, Christina Nita-Rotaru at Northeastern, and Attila A. Yavuz at USF. Ashish Kundu leads the project at Cisco Research.
鈥淭he goal is to influence real-world standards and protocols for post-quantum secure systems deployed in routers, servers and global networks,鈥� Yavuz, an associate professor in the 91视频Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing, said.
The four faculty members and their labs plan to establish a consortium within Cisco鈥檚 global post-quantum security working group. 鈥淥ur complementary expertise drives this goal forward,鈥� Yavuz said.
Each member leads work in a distinct domain. Yavuz specializes in applied cryptography, designing algorithms that are resistant to both quantum and classical attacks, and integrating these techniques into networked systems such as autonomous vehicles, satellites and 5G cellular networks.
Strengthening defenses for a quantum future
For researchers like Yavuz, cybersecurity research is about more than just combating present threats. It is a constant effort to stay ahead of the curve, at the cutting edge, where theoretical threats and real-world adversaries present looming danger.
As part of the grant, the fourth awarded to the researcher since 2019, Yavuz鈥檚 team collaborates closely with Cisco鈥檚 research group to analyze and test its cybersecurity solutions. They assess Cisco鈥檚 protocols for vulnerabilities, reinforce them against potential quantum-enabled attacks, and develop new algorithms tailored to various network and system architectures.鈥�
Why quantum computing changes the cybersecurity game
The initiative, supported by Cisco鈥檚 Head of Research, Ramana Kompella, and led by the Head of Cybersecurity Research at Cisco Research, Ashish Kundu, demonstrates the tech giant鈥檚 commitment to making a significant impact in this field.
That鈥檚 because these threats are not limited to credit card theft or blackmail. Critical infrastructures such as smart grid systems are also vulnerable. For example, these systems distribute energy to cities across the globe and require public internet infrastructure. If a bad actor can get a key, they can compromise the system to cause failures and grid overload.
That uncertain future is rapidly approaching with advances in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Quantum computers use principles of quantum mechanics such as superposition and entanglement to create qubits, which can exist in combinations of 0 and 1 states simultaneously. This allows certain algorithms to solve problems, including the factoring of large numbers, much more efficiently than classical computers. As a result, many widely used public key cryptographic systems are at risk, and the transition to quantum-resistant cybersecurity methods has become essential.
Yavuz said that traditional cybersecurity relies on two pillars: public key encryption and digital signatures. These are created using some highly difficult mathematical problems, also referred to as intractable problems, for traditional computers. However, large-scale quantum computers can solve some of them, such as 鈥渇actorization of large integers into prime factors鈥� and 鈥渄iscrete logarithm problem."
鈥淭o the best of our knowledge, there are no fully functional and large-scale quantum computers yet. However, the field is evolving very rapidly, and this threat does exist at least with state-level adversaries,鈥� Yavuz explained. 鈥淲henever we enter the internet and perform a credit card payment, all these protocols need authentication provided by digital signatures, which serve as our identity. An adversary with an operational quantum computer could extract someone鈥檚 key and create fake certificates and identities.鈥�
Cisco Research is pursuing a multi-faceted approach to address quantum computer threats. They are working on adapting NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography (NIST-PQC) standards and also designing quantum key management methods that do not necessarily depend on NIST PQC to provide additional security. Yavuz will focus on analyzing these solutions and customizing the NIST PQC standards with a specialized design.
Partnerships that drive research impact and student success
Industry-academic partnerships like this benefit both the company and the institution, as well as the student researchers working on them.
鈥淚 have received five unrestricted grants from Robert Bosch,鈥� Yavuz said. 鈥淭hat created a very significant impact with publications and patents. One of my students is now a tenure-track professor who started with an internship with Bosch.鈥�
Yavuz predicts a similar impact with Cisco in the development of new publications and applications that can make a practical and intellectual impact.
鈥淚ndustry standards meeting the highest academic research standards improve the quality of both,鈥� he said. 鈥淔rom an educational point of view, collaboration like this contributes to training the next generation of cybersecurity experts. Aspects of our research are integrated as a course module into our courses for both undergraduate and graduate students.鈥�
The work is not kept in a silo. Alongside Alongside Kundu from Cisco Research and Nita-Rotaru from Northeastern, Yavuz will co-chair the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security Workshop on Quantum-Resistant Cryptography and Security held in Taiwan in October, representing 91视频in a global academic setting.