Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) company PQShield has been named a supporting member of Japan’s Cyber Research Consortium (CRC).
PQShield has joined the Cyber Research Consortium (CRC) in Japan to participate in its program with the Japanese government’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to enhance Japan’s defense against quantum-enabled cyber attacks.
As a supporting member of the CRC, PQShield will design and deliver PQC protocols that can be implemented across Japan’s technology supply chain and contribute to the ongoing global PQC standardization process. NEDO is providing a funding grant to CRC to support this project.
The publication of NIST’s finalized PQC standards in August 2024 gave businesses, governments, and institutions globally a defined route to modernizing their cryptography, safeguarding their data, and protecting themselves from future quantum attacks. In July 2024, to kick-start this process in Japan,
NEDO announced that research into PQC implementation technologies would take place as part of a newly established project within Japan’s K Program.
Funded by NEDO and delivered by the CRC, the K Program builds on the collaboration between public and private organizations in Japan to investigate critical technologies for civil and defense purposes.
PQShield has been named a supporting member of the CRC under its NEDO grant -subcontracted to deliver designs and protocols for PQC implementation technologies.
PQShield’s Lead Cryptography Researcher Dr Shuichi Katsumata will lead the company’s work under the CRC.
Through this collaborative project, PQShield aims to enhance the functionality and security of the technology supply chain across Japan and globally.
This includes planned R&D into the difficulty of the lattice problems PQC is based in, opening up avenues to understand the fundamental security of current cryptography standards.
PQShield already has a strong presence in Japan, with partners including Mirise Technologies, Sumitomo Electric and NTT Data Group Corporation – the NEDO grant supports the company’s growing presence in the market and the expansion of its local team.
Dr Ali El Kaafarani, founder and CEO, PQShield, said: “Securing critical infrastructure from quantum computers requires strong collaboration between governments, universities and the private sector, and this project is an ambitious and necessary step to protect against the quantum threat.
“Japan is an important market for PQShield and plays a critical role in the global technology supply chain. We are pleased to be working directly with NEDO and the government of Japan to help implement PQC across the country and protect against the cyber threats of the future.” Tsutomu Matsumoto, Director of the Cyber Physical Security Research Center at AIST, said: “The implementation of post-quantum cryptography across Japan is extremely important and updating existing protocols to support NIST’s latest standards will play a significant role in this process. We’re pleased to support this vital mission and look forward to collaborating with fellow CRC subcontractors, including PQShield, to design and standardize new protocols which can become public.”
