Quantum computing is expected to be mainstream at some point in the not-too-distant future. However, current public-key cryptographic methods can be broken by such devices with the use of Shor's algorithm, meaning that data encrypted today is in danger of being decrypted later by these more-powerful computers. Lattice-based cryptography is said to be safe against both classical computers and, according to IBM, quantum computers that are fault-tolerant and have computing power even in the millions of qubits.

The overall aim of this project is to evaluate the security of an implemented lattice-based cryptosystem and suggest ways to improve that implementation. The programming portion of the project will involve writing code to attack the implementation and modifying the implementation to improve on it. There will also be a written exploration of how the application can be scaled up to be safe against powerful quantum computers.

Research is needed to first compare different lattice-based schemes such as NTRU, GGH, and RLWE-KEX. One scheme will be selected to base the implementation on, and the decision will need to be justified. Extensive research will also need to be performed to establish why, when scaled up, the application will indeed provide security against powerful quantum computers.