Biometric authentication has become integral to digital identity systems, particularly in smart cities where it en-ables secure access to services across governance, trans-portation, and public infrastructure. Centralised archi-tectures, though widely used, pose privacy and scalabil-ity challenges due to the aggregation of sensitive biomet-ric data. Decentralised identity frameworks offer better data sovereignty and eliminate single points of failure but introduce new security concerns, particularly around mu-tual trust among distributed devices. In such environments, biometric sensors and verification agents must authenticate one another before sharing sensitive biometric data. Ex-isting authentication schemes rely on classical public key infrastructure, which is increasingly susceptible to quan-tum attacks. This work addresses this gap by propos-ing a quantum-secure communication protocol for decen-tralised biometric systems, built upon an enhanced Quan-tum Key Distribution (QKD) system. The protocol incorpo-rates quantum-resilient authentication at both the classical and quantum layers of QKD: post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is used to secure the classical channel, while authen-tication qubits verify the integrity of the quantum channel. Once trust is established, QKD generates symmetric keys for encrypting biometric data in transit. Qiskit-based sim-ulations show a key generation rate of 15 bits/sec and 89% efficiency. This layered, quantum-resilient approach offers scalable, robust authentication for next-generation smart city infrastructures.
Biometric authentication has become integral to digital identity systems, particularly in smart cities where it en-ables secure access to services across governance, trans-portation, and public infrastructure. Centralised archi-tectures, though widely used, pose privacy and scalabil-ity challenges due to the aggregation of sensitive biomet-ric data. Decentralised identity frameworks offer better data sovereignty and eliminate single points of failure but introduce new security concerns, particularly around mu-tual trust among distributed devices. In such environments, biometric sensors and verification agents must authenticate one another before sharing sensitive biometric data. Ex-isting authentication schemes rely on classical public key infrastructure, which is increasingly susceptible to quan-tum attacks. This work addresses this gap by propos-ing a quantum-secure communication protocol for decen-tralised biometric systems, built upon an enhanced Quan-tum Key Distribution (QKD) system. The protocol incorpo-rates quantum-resilient authentication at both the classical and quantum layers of QKD: post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is used to secure the classical channel, while authen-tication qubits verify the integrity of the quantum channel. Once trust is established, QKD generates symmetric keys for encrypting biometric data in transit. Qiskit-based sim-ulations show a key generation rate of 15 bits/sec and 89% efficiency. This layered, quantum-resilient approach offers scalable, robust authentication for next-generation smart city infrastructures.
Biometric authentication has become integral to digital identity systems, particularly in smart cities where it enables secure access to services across governance, transportation, and public infrastructure. Centralised architectures, though widely used, pose privacy and scalability challenges due to the aggregation of sensitive biometric data. Decentralised identity frameworks offer better data sovereignty and eliminate single points of failure but introduce new security concerns, particularly around mutual trust among distributed devices. In such environments, biometric sensors and verification agents must authenticate one another before sharing sensitive biometric data. Existing authentication schemes rely on classical public key infrastructure, which is increasingly susceptible to quantum attacks. This work addresses this gap by proposing a quantum-secure communication protocol for decentralised biometric systems, built upon an enhanced Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system. The protocol incorporates quantum-resilient authentication at both the classical and quantum layers of QKD: post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is used to secure the classical channel, while authentication qubits verify the integrity of the quantum channel. Once trust is established, QKD generates symmetric keys for encrypting biometric data in transit. Qiskit-based simulations show a key generation rate of 15 bits/sec and 89% efficiency. This layered, quantum-resilient approach offers scalable, robust authentication for next-generation smart city infrastructures.
The development of national digital identity systems has sped up, leading to an increasing demand for biometric authentication system, which needs to be secure and able to serve all users and be adapted to future needs. The classical biometric systems rely on fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition technology, which poses significant accessibility challenges to individuals with physical disabilities, visual impairments and atypical biometric characteristics such as those born without fingers or having more fingers. The existing protocols are vulnerable to the new quantum attacks that threaten classical cryptographic protocols. This work presents the Quantum-Resilient Inclusive Biometric Framework, which allows the use of various biometrics and resilient to quantum threats. The framework supports matching via a quantum state encoding method which encodes multiple biometric features under a Grover-based search technique that amplifies the amplitudes. We present a smart identity card system which can be proved to be post-quantum secure by combining lattice-based cryptography and quantum-safe digital signatures. The architecture is such that offering access to the chip-enabled authentication and Braille-assisted verification system doesn't compromise the security of the cryptographic protections. Security is evaluated by calculating quantum threat models with Shor-type, Grover-type attacks as potential adversary techniques. The proposed model offers better scalability for large-scale biometric search, as well as it offers better accessibility to the disabled people and better privacy and security in facing cyber threats that will be evolved by quantum technologies in the future. The work builds a secure and affordable national identity infrastructure through design of national identity systems based on quantum computing principles for the inclusive biometric systems.
Healthcare systems are rapidly becoming digital, which has increased the demand for safe, dependable, and privacy-preserving authentication methods. Iris biometrics have emerged as a key component for identity verification in delicate settings due to their high accuracy and stability. However, protecting privacy and data security is a difficulty for conventional biometric systems, particularly in light of new quantum risks. For advanced healthcare security, this study suggests a revolutionary quantum-enhanced, privacy-preserving iris biometrics system. Through the integration of quantum computing technologies, the framework makes use of quantum-accelerated algorithms like Grover's algorithm for efficient template matching and quantum-safe cryptography like Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). Homomorphic encryption and federated learning are two further ways to improve privacy preservation while guaranteeing adherence to HIPAA and other healthcare data protection laws. In comparison to conventional techniques, the suggested system performs better in terms of accuracy, security, and computational efficiency when tested on benchmark iris datasets. By filling important gaps in safe and privacy-focused identity management, this research creates a novel method at the nexus of quantum computing, biometrics, and healthcare.
Abstract Quantum key distribution (QKD) can provide information theoretically secure key exchange even in the era of quantum computers. However, QKD requires the classical channel to be authenticated, the current method for which is pre-sharing symmetric keys. For a QKD network of n users, this method requires Cn2=n(n−1)/2 C n 2 = n ( n − 1 ) / 2 pairs of symmetric keys to realize pairwise interconnection. In contrast, with the help of a mature public key infrastructure (PKI) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) with quantum-resistant security, each user only needs to apply for one digital certificate from a certificate authority (CA) to achieve efficient and secure authentication for QKD. We need to assume only the short-term security of the PQC algorithm to achieve long-term security of the distributed keys. Here, we experimentally verified the feasibility, efficiency, and stability of the PQC algorithm in QKD authentication, and demonstrated the advantages when new users join the QKD network. Using the PQC public-key infrastructure, the nodes need to mutually trust only the CA to authenticate each other. QKD combined with PQC authentication will greatly promote and extend the application prospects of quantum-safe communication.
A significant problem facing cybersecurity is that most client/server identity authentication schemes depend on computational complexity which is recently challenged by the super exponential computational abilities of quantum computers. Quantum cryptography with its quantum mechanics principles solves this problem and provides mathematically un-hackable secure communication for the quantum computers epoch. Biometric authentication has a big challenge related to its protection as it has to be submitted and stored in encrypted form. Unfortunately, most existing biometric cryptosystems rely on classical cryptography, so they are insecure in quantum era. This problem is solved in this paper by introducing a novel three-factor biometric quantum identity authentication scheme combining something you know (password), something you produce (client’s voice), and something you are (client’s face image) is proposed. The scheme consists of two phases: client enrollment and client login/authentication. The methodology is to use in the enrollment phase, two layers of quantum encryption for the client’s voice signal. Each layer consists of two simple quantum circuits of SWAP and C-NOT quantum gates respectively using a different pseudorandom key obtained from a cellular automata (CA) pseudorandom generator. The proposed scheme has many merits. Firstly, it introduces a new design of muti-factors quantum biometric authentication scheme as the biometric voice data is processed, transmitted, and stored at the server database in an encrypted unconditionally secure quantum form which provides parallel processing, real-time communications, inherent level of security against attacks, tamper-proof security and exponential powerful storage capability due to the quantum properties. Secondly, the proposed scheme achieves double-layers security by combing quantum voice encryption and quantum secure direct communication in one process such that the quantum channel eavesdropper cannot obtain any valuable information in case of information leakage. Thirdly, the distribution and management of encryption key problem is solved as there is no need for key exchange prior to communication. Fourthly, it achieves high communication efficiency as although it is a three-factor biometric identity authentication, only one biometric data is sent in quantum encrypted form to the server. Fifthly, the numerical simulations showed that the proposed scheme has large key space, high key sensitivity and more robust performance against different types of attacks compared to other existing classical and quantum voice encryption schemes. Finally, as an identity authentication method, the proposed scheme achieves identification accuracy of 100% with zero False Rejection Rate (FRR) and zero False acceptance rate (FAR) which is perfect.
The next generation of Quantum Internet of Things (QIoT) has the potential to revolutionize various sectors, including smart homes, health-care, and smart cities, by enabling more sophisticated and interconnected systems. These applications incorporate advanced features, such as autonomous decision-making based on Quantum Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (QAI/ML) and context-aware functionality. The security of the data in these applications relies on traditional cryptographic techniques, which, however, face a growing threat due to the significant advancements in quantum computing, especially with the Shor's algorithm. This algorithm poses a substantial risk of breaking conventional cryptographic methods within a feasible timeframe. To address these emerging security challenges in the quantum realm, we propose a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) based on the BB84 protocol. This approach aims to provide robust authentication using certificates through a classical channel and secure quantum key exchange via a quantum channel in a public environment. The proposed QKD scheme is implemented using a client-server model in Python and Qiskit, demonstrating its practicality in real-world applications. The obtained results showcase the successful establishment of a secure session key between IoT smart (sensor) devices and gateway nodes, effectively mitigating potential threats such as eavesdropping.