Researchers from Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum (RUB) in Germany, have developed new cryptographic algorithms that, according to them, are virtually unbreakable.
Typically, cryptographic methods are created like this: somebody comes up with a new algorithm and another person tries to break it; if that person doesn’t succeed in breaking it, the algorithm is secure. However, the new algorithm created by researchers from RUB is made using a completely new approach: their security is based on particularly hard mathematical problems.
The researchers explain that their security algorithms were made by some of the best mathematicians: “If somebody succeeded in breaking those algorithms, he would be able to solve a mathematical problem that the greatest minds in the world have been poring over for 100 or 200 years”. In fact, those algorithms are so secure and efficient that they can be implemented into certain microdevices, such as electric garage openers.
The new algorithms are lattice-based authentication algorithms[1] and they are pretty advanced. The team tested various parameters that make the lattice problem harder or simpler and then used that as a base for developing a cryptographic algorithm. As for authentication protocols, they are required whenever an object has to prove its identity.
The team is also researching lattice-based encryption methods, which are needed whenever the two parties want to exchange a secret message.
[1] Lattice-based cryptography is a term for asymmetric cryptographic primitives which are based on lattices.
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