Historical Papers Seminar Series

Quantum and Post-Quantum Cryptography

This talk will trace the fundamental impact of quantum computation on cryptography, including the breaking of classical cryptostems such as RSA by quantum algorithms and, remarkably, the use of quantum algorithms to design and establish security of other classical cryptosystems. I will also describe how novel features of quantum states have been exploited to create quantum cryptographic primitives, and the challenges in defining and establishing security of such primitives. The talk is aimed at a general audience and will not assume any background in quantum computation.