Projects | UCS

SATURN

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The SATURN project addresses critical security challenges in Quantum Key Distribution Networks (QKDN). With the development of quantum computers, the threat to classical cryptography is growing, making quantum-safe alternatives essential. Particularly critical are ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ attacks, where encrypted data is stored today to be decrypted later by quantum computers. While QKD enables secure key exchange from an information-theoretic point of view, its practical implementation in networks poses major challenges. Current QKD modules over optical fibre are limited to distances of about 150 km. For longer distances, intermediate nodes must be used, which raises new security issues.

The SATURN project will develop secure and efficient protocols for key forwarding in QKDNs. A hybrid approach will be pursued, combining QKD with post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Existing protocols will be formally analysed, new security models will be developed, and practical implementation guidelines will be produced. The results should provide an informed decision-making framework for the use of QKDNs, taking into account both security and practical aspects such as performance, scalability and crypto-agility.

Contact

Johanna Henrich

PIONEER

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The ATHENE PIONEER (A PrIvacy companion for mOtivatioN and knowlEdge transfER) project is an interdisciplinary project that addresses one of the key challenges in this century for users: remaining control over their private data.

PIONEER aims to empower users in their digital sovereignty by providing them with the necessary knowledge and motivating them to acquire and apply competencies in their everyday digital lives.

This will be realized through the user-centered development of a digital privacy companion in the form of a mobile app in which users can (1) acquire the necessary knowledge about digital contexts enabling them to make self-determined and informed decisions about how to handle their data.

Furthermore, (2) through the application of psychological theories in the design, the digital privacy companion supports users in showing and maintaining privacy-aware behavior in the long-term.

Lastly, (3) different user groups (e.g., elderly people, adolescents) are taken into account to derive and consider specifics, such as different psychological needs that drive human behavior or different knowledge levels, resulting in different user requirements.

Additionally, PIONEER employs a participatory co-creation process, integrating insights from both privacy experts and lay users.

Contact

Sara Hahn

LEAK

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The ATHENE Leak project addresses side-channel-analysis-attacks (SCA) by developing a so-called natural leakage model, that is closer to the hardware than standard leakage models and thereby more precise and effective.

As full electrical simulations of complex hardware are usually to resource-intensive, common leakage models abstract the hardware on the register-transfer-level (RTL) and are thereby much more resource-friendly during simulations.

A natural leakage model combines the resource-friendliness with measured behavior of the hardware. Based on this model, the project aims to further adapt and develop performance-optimized countermeasures against SCA on PQC-Algorithms implemented on the RISC-V platform.

The intended project results (a natural leakage models and optimizations) can be used to support hardware engineers during the development, hardening and testing of hardware-based security solutions. Thereby the number of prototypes before final rollout of new hardware will be reduced, speeding up the development process and saving costs in the development and hardening process.

Contact

Nicolai Schmitt

DemoQuanDT

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

DemoQuanDT is an application-oriented research project to demonstrate and investigate quantum communication networks by establishing an entire QKD route within the German telecommunication network. Connecting Berlin and Bonn over a link distance of 923 km, the project includes all necessary components, systems, and processes for carrier-grade quantum key distribution.

The project addresses the growing threat that quantum computers pose to asymmetric cryptography used in everyday internet protocols. It investigates how to profitably combine Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and how to integrate both into existing communication protocols such as TLS. The overall objective is to develop reliable and usable protection against quantum computers, especially for critical infrastructures.

Partners

Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

PQC Integration

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Asymmetric cryptography, which is widely used everyday for authentication and key exchange in communication protocols, is threatened by the ongoing development of Quantum-Computers. Quantum Computers have the potential to defeat the security of classical algorithms like RSA or ECDH and break the underlying mathematical problems within the next view years. To further ensure security, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) started a process in 2016 to find novel, quantum-resistant algorithms (PQC) for execution on classical computers, equivalent to the classical ones. These novel algorithms have to be accessable to software-developers as well as beeing tested and integrated into existing software.

The PQC-Integration-Project develops concepts for easy and safe integration of quantum-safe cryptography with a focus on crypto-agility. Further research aspects are performance in real-world applications, usability – including safe and easy to use API’s, as well as concepts to migrate large infrastructures.