Trust Stamp Publishes A White Paper On The Potential Impact Of Quantum Computing On Legacy Biometric Systems

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | January 05, 2024 09:34am

Trust Stamp (NASDAQ:IDAI), the Privacy-First Identity CompanyTM providing AI-powered trust and identity services has published a White Paper discussing the potential vulnerabilities of legacy biometric systems given the development of Quantum Computing systems.

Dr. Niel Kempson, CB, FREng, Trust Stamp's Executive Advisor on Technical Capability commented, "Methods currently used to protect communications over the Internet will be secure until quantum computers become a practical reality - experts generally estimate that this is a decade away."

"But, we should recognise that a "harvest-now decrypt later" (HNDL) approach could be executed by resource-rich adversaries, capturing data now that can subsequently be decrypted when quantum computers become available. This would make sense for data that would still have significant value a decade or more in the future. While this has traditionally been the preserve of nation-state actors, cyber-criminals - sometimes state-supported - are now powerful adversaries too."

"Financial institutions and others with sensitive data really should question whether they could be a potential target and whether their current implementations would be vulnerable to an HNDL attack. This is especially relevant to biometric systems where biometric data needs protecting carefully for a lifetime - unlike a password, a face or fingerprint cannot easily be reset when compromised."

As an indication of the immediacy of the HNDL risk, in May 2022 the US Government issued a mandate to all US Federal Agencies maintaining sensitive data to deploy symmetric encryption systems to protect quantum vulnerable systems by the end of 2023.

Dr. Kempson went on to comment, "Trust Stamp's IT2 algorithm is quantum-proof by design. If an enterprise or NGO is implementing or reviewing a biometric system today, it should actively look into the HNDL risk. It makes no sense to implement or maintain technology that will probably be unusable within the next decade, implicitly gambling on future solutions with unknown complexity and cost."

"In 2016, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated a process to solicit, evaluate and standardize new public-key algorithms that will be secure against a quantum computer (also known as post-quantum or quantum-resistant algorithms). After six years, four algorithms were recommended for standardization with a further four candidates proposed for further consideration. Unfortunately one of those candidates was defeated within a few weeks of its release, reinforcing the difficult nature of this process."

Copies of the White Paper can be requested by emailing Andrew Gowasack, President of Trust Stamp at: agowasack@truststamp.net

Posted In: IDAI