McEliece quantum encryption system cracked

Eindhoven, Netherlands -- Dutch scientists say they have cracked the so-called -- a candidate to provide security during the age of quantum computing.

Researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology said the attack succeeded by means of a large number of linked computers. Professor Tanja Lange and doctoral student Christiane Peters, together with Professor Daniel Bernstein of the University of Illinois, discovered a way to speed up attacks against the 30-year-old McEliece cryptosystem. The researchers wrote software that would decrypt a McEliece ciphertext in just one week on a cluster of 200 computers.

The software was run on several dozen computers in the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Taiwan and the United States. A computer in Ireland found the ciphertext.

Researchers noted the McEliece cryptosystem can be scaled to larger key sizes to avoid such attacks and remains a leading candidate for post-quantum cryptography.

The successful attack was announced recently in Cincinnati during a conference on post-quantum cryptography.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.