This year Real World Crypto (RWC), one of the largest academic conferences on cryptography, took place in Toronto, Canada, on March 25–27. Due to the growing concern about the threat quantum computers pose to classical cryptography, for the past two years a co-located event has been held on Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).
InfoSec Global’s VP, Sales Engineering, Andrew Jackson and Cryptographer, Victoria de Quehen attended this Real World PQC (RWPQC) event on March 24, which focused on practical topics for a PQC migration. One discussion area was the cryptanalysis of the algorithms NIST has chosen for standardization. Following the general trend of the last few years, the focus at PQC conferences, such as RWPQC, has shifted from only analyzing the new PQC algorithms to examining how to deploy them in protocols such as Signal and TLS. The workshop also covered PQC migration topics such as cryptographic discovery using tools like AgileSec™ Analytics and the need for crypto-agility.
Victoria stayed for the entire RWC conference, which featured many interesting talks on recent practical research in cryptanalysis, including side-channel attacks, implementation details, and deploying algorithms in cryptographic protocols and infrastructures.
The choice of Toronto as the location for this international conference reflects the vibrant cryptographic community in the Toronto-Waterloo area, which boasts several cryptographic vendors, including InfoSec Global’s headquarters.
