Thales joins PQC4eMRTD project to protect travel documents from quantum computing attack

The European Union has taken a step towards protecting electronic passports against the threat of quantum computing attacks, with a new project involving a number of public and private organizations including Thales and Infineon Technologies.

Funded under the Digital Europe Programme, the cryptic-sounding PQC4eMRTD initiative (Post-Quantum Cryptography for electronic Machine-Readable Travel Documents) was launched last Friday and will continue for the next two years. Its main task will be to standardize and promote quantum-resistant cryptographic protocols for electronic machine-readable travel documents (eMRTDs).

The initiative is coordinated by Infineon, Germany’s largest semiconductor manufacturer. Aside from Thales, the consortium also includes French post-quantum cryptography developer CryptoNext Security, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the Institute for Comparative Law in Slovenia.

Quantum computers pose a significant challenge to current cryptographic methods because they can solve certain mathematical problems exponentially faster than classical computers. This means that encrypted data that was once considered secure could be decrypted by a sufficiently powerful quantum computer.

This threat extends to identity documents, including eMRTDs, which largely rely on asymmetric cryptography. To counter these threats, researchers need to develop post-quantum cryptography (PQC), which consists of cryptographic algorithms designed to withstand quantum attacks, according to organizations such as digital security industry group Eurosmart.

“The migration towards quantum-safe eMRTDs will take decades; therefore, it is essential to organize it now,” the group writes in its 2021 paper. “More precisely, there is considerable work to do in the standardization field.”

Article Topics

biometric passport  |  cryptography  |  digital ID  |  EU  |  Infineon  |  PQC4eMRTD  |  quantum computing  |  Thales  |  Thales Digital Identity and Security