QUESTS is an internal project from Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) which is going to develop a new generation of cryptographic technologies, based on the realization of both high-speed and secure quantum oblivious transfer (OT) cryptographic primitive. Oblivious transfer is a fundamental primitive for SMC. Based on a novel hybrid approach, quantum and classical, that we developed for the generation of oblivious keys, we will implement oblivious transfer in a way that surpass in terms of speed and security any know classical implementation. This secure and fast oblivious transfer has the potential to make SMC‐based services broadly available, if the generated quantum oblivious keys can be securely distributed to every device in the network.
We will investigate and propose a distribution network for quantum generated oblivious keys, in a way that makes possible to disseminate the keys for many end‐devices. The end‐devices, cars in the case of a vehicular network, are not wired therefore a final radio link will also have to be considered. The ability to distribute securely quantum generated keys to mobile devices is a fundamental step to integrate quantum technologies in modern complex and heterogeneous communication systems.
As proof‐of‐concept, we will focus on a service to vehicular networks. Vehicular networks can play a major role in the future of mobility, but their full potential can only be unveiled if the parties can cooperate in a full secure and privacy respectful way. Therefore, implementing a secure multiparty computation service in a vehicular network can have a huge societal impact, but also raises major engineering challenges due to the large number parties involved and due to the mobility of end‐users, which demands the novel approaches that will be pursued in the QUESTS project.
Acknowledgements
This work is funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds and when applicable co-funded EU funds under the project UIDB/50008/2020-UIDP/50008/2020 (action QUESTS)
