Authentication is one of the major technologies for cyberspace assurance.To build a framework of authentication technologies in cyberspace,the paper classifies the authentication technologies as four categories,identity authentication,message authentication,hybrid authentication,and authentication for emerging applications.It also gives a systematic description of authentication requirements and of the main technologies.The paper includes both the traditional authentication and those based on quantum cryptography.By means of four quantum authentication schemes,which are the earlier research results,the correspondence between quantum authentication schemes and those traditional ones is illustrated.
Authentication is one of the major technologies for cyberspace assurance.To build a framework of authentication technologies in cyberspace,the paper classifies the authentication technologies as four categories,identity authentication,message authentication,hybrid authentication,and authentication for emerging applications.It also gives a systematic description of authentication requirements and of the main technologies.The paper includes both the traditional authentication and those based on quantum cryptography.By means of four quantum authentication schemes,which are the earlier research results,the correspondence between quantum authentication schemes and those traditional ones is illustrated.
Quantum computing is being seen as a disrupting factor with immense power to redefine the landscape of information cyberspace security. For India, as a large emerging nation with ever-increasing growth rates in digital technologies and initiatives like UPI, Aadhar-based identity and payment systems, 5G technologies, smart cities, and defense technologies, quantum computing provides risks and opportunities. Classical cryptographic technologies like RSA and ECC are transitioning towards obsolescence with the emergence of Shor’s Algorithm. Quantum computing offers prospects of a good alternative with quantum-safe technologies. This paper proposes a Quantum Cybersecurity Transition Framework (QCTF) for India as a way of adapting quantum computing for its information cyberspace. With the help of this framework and case studies, this paper shows how quantum computing can provide India with an information cyberspace security advantage. The results of this study emphasize and advocate for the incorporation and realization of quantum computing and quantum-safe technologies for information cyberspace security.
Single points of failure are difficult for traditional identity authentication methods to manage since they primarily depend on a reliable central entity. Furthermore, it is challenging to develop and apply these traditional systems in remote scenarios since they require storing a significant amount of public key or identity authentication data. Existing identity identification systems face serious difficulties from the introduction of quantum computing, especially with regard to the security of current cryptographic techniques. The finest authentication method for preventing unwanted access in the past was the password. As the authentication system's technology advances daily, the password gets updated to become more secure. However, the industry and researchers have been forced to discover a new option where there is no chance of theft, hacking, or password cracking due to the fragility of this traditional approach. With the introduction of quantum key distribution techniques, secure authentication has reached a new level since, unlike post-quantum cryptography, PQC can offer absolute security. Identity authentication is so crucial, and over the past three decades, a number of systems utilizing quantum resources have been put forth for identity authentication. In this research, we provide identity authentication using QKD and the falcon scheme of PQC. Intrusion detection, security level, public key size, signing time, verification time, and key generation rate with 1, 128 + Quantum, 897, 200, 100, and 100 are some of the factors that are taken into consideration when evaluating the proposed identity authentication process. The importance of switching identity authentication systems to PQC methods they are not susceptible to quantum attacks is discussed in this study. It provides a summary of identity authentication algorithms that are quantum vulnerable. By utilizing post-quantum cryptography approaches, this research adds to the continuous work towards safe, effective, and user-friendly authentication solutions. A number of PQC algorithms are examined and contrasted.
The absolute security of quantum communication protocols relies on a critical premise: all participating parties are legitimate users. Ensuring the legitimacy of participant identities is paramount in complex real-world communication environments. Quantum identity authentication (QIA), in which fundamental principles of quantum mechanics are used to achieve unilateral or mutual authentication between communicating parties, constitutes an indispensable core component for building a comprehensive quantum secure communication system. It holds significant research value in the field of quantum communication. This review employs a comparative classification method to systematically outline the research trajectory of QIA protocols. By categorizing protocols based on the required quantum resources and the types of quantum protocols employed, the advantages and disadvantages of various categories are analyzed in terms of efficiency, security, and practicality. Single-photon protocols require low resources, and they are easy to implement, and compatible with existing optical components, but require high-efficiency single-photon detectors and exhibit weak noise resistance. Entangled-state protocols offer high security and strong resistance to eavesdropping, particularly suitable for long-distance or multi-party authentication. However, they greatly depend on the preparation and maintenance of high-precision, stable multi-particle entanglement sources, resulting in high experimental complexity. Continuous-variable (CV) protocols achieve high transmission efficiency in short-distance metropolitan area networks and are compatible with classical optical communication equipment, making experiments relatively straightforward. Yet, they require high-precision modulation technology and are sensitive to channel loss. Hybrid protocols aim to balance resource efficiency and security while reducing reliance on a single quantum source, but their design is complex and may introduce new attack vectors. Quantum key distribution (QKD) framework protocols embed identity authentication in the key distribution process, making them suitable for scenarios requiring long-term secure key distribution, although they often depend on pre-shared keys or trusted third parties. Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) framework protocols integrate authentication with secure direct information transmission, offering high efficiency for real-time communication, but requiring high channel quality. Measurement-device-independent QSDC (MDI-QSDC) represents a key development direction that can resist attacks on measurement devices. Quantum teleportation (QT) framework protocols achieves cross-node authentication and unconditional security, making it suitable for quantum relay networks despite its high experimental complexity. The entanglement swapping framework protocol can resist conspiracy attacks and is suitable for multi-party joint scenarios, but it consumes a lot of resources and relies on trusted third party. Ping-pong protocol framework supports dynamic key updates and exhibits strong resistance to eavesdropping, making it suitable for temporary authentication on mobile terminals, although it typically only supports unilateral authentication and requires a bidirectional channel. Subsequently, this review details the latest QIA protocols of our research group, including a multi-party synchronous identity authentication protocol based on Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states, and a tripartite QSDC protocol with identity authentication capabilities utilizing polarization-spatial super-coding. The GHZ-based multi-party synchronous authentication protocol leverages the strong correlations inherent in GHZ states to achieve simultaneous authentication among multiple parties. Through a carefully designed two-round decoy-state detection mechanism, it effectively resists both external eavesdropping and internal attacks originating from authenticated users, thereby enhancing the efficiency and security of identity management in large-scale quantum networks. The core innovation of the polarization-spatial super-coding tripartite QSDC protocol lies in its deep integration of the authentication process with information transmission by utilizing the spatial degrees of freedom of single photons. This design accomplishes the identity verification of two senders and the transmission of secret information within a single protocol run, ensuring end-to-end security through a three-stage security check. This “authentication-as-communication” paradigm significantly improves the overall efficiency and practicality of the protocol. Its successful implementation also relies on advancements in quantum memory technology. Finally, the review outlines future research directions for quantum identity authentication and explores its potential applications in quantum communication. The QIA research needs to focus on reducing resource dependency, exploring more efficient protocol designs, further enhancing protocol integration and robustness, prioritizing the development of protocols adaptable to real-world environments, and actively investigating integration with novel scenarios. This comprehensive review aims to provide theoretical research foundations and technical support for the practical development of future quantum identity authentication.
In this review, we survey the cryptographic task of authentication from the perspective of quantum communication. We review three main flavours of authentication that are often conflated in the literature: authentication of classical messages, authentication of quantum messages, and entity authentication, also covering recent hardware-assisted approaches. We compare representative protocols for each functionality in terms of their security assumptions, set-up requirements, composability, and scalability in large or dynamic networks, and use these criteria to identify and recommend suitable candidates. Finally, applications are surveyed: we provide a detailed case study of authentication and quantum key distribution (QKD), then extend the discussion to protocols beyond QKD, where the role of authentication is more complex. Our take-home message is that an authentication requirement is not an intrinsic limitation of quantum networks: as with all secure communication, each protocol relies on a particular authentication resource, and the security claim of that protocol is meaningful only once the authentication resource and its deployment assumptions are made explicit. At the same time, the existing classical and quantum literature already offers a range of quantum-secure authentication schemes, which can support different applications when carefully matched to the required functionality, assumptions, and security guarantees.
With digital technology and increasingly linked economies comes a new set of risks from a slew of cyber-attacks. To improve cyber resilience, a cybersecurity capability system comprised of People, Process, and Technology is required to control the ongoing advancement of science and technology, particularly the quantum computer. As a result, attempts have been undertaken to lay new groundwork for cryptography research in computer communication networks. One of these attempts resulted in the creation of quantum cryptography technology, the security of which is based on quantum mechanics rules. Cyberspace security has emerged as the most important problem for the Internet in the foreseeable future. The objective of this research paper is to discuss the flaws and security problems in contemporary encryption, quantum cryptography essential concepts, real-world application use of this technology, and lastly the future direction of quantum cryptography.
The main focus of this paper is to find out the emerging and future scope of cryptography. Using the principles of quantum physics, quantum cryptography is a revolutionary technique that enables two parties to protect network communications. The theory of quantum cryptography and how this technology improves network security are the main topics of this research study. This article encapsulates the state of quantum encryption at present, practical application implementations of this expertise, and ultimately the future course that quantum cryptography will take. The ease of authentication via fingerprint, eye, voice, palm, and other biometrics is expressly stated by biometric cryptography. Biometric verification provides more security than would be comfortably provided by conventional cryptography-based confirmation. A rapidly developing field of technology is DNA cryptography, which uses DNA computing principles.