What goes around, comes around again … Welcome, Code-based Cryptography
I have to smile when I see code-based methods coming back within a post-quantum work, and where our existing public key methods will be replaced by lattice, isogenies, hash-based, and code-based methods. I smile, because I started my career in cybersecurity and networking through data communications, and it’s great to see it coming back again.
I remember, too, watching the demonstration of audio CD-ROM on Tomorrow’s World and being amazing by its ability to cope with scratches on the disc. And so, what goes around, comes around again.
Part of my current work is looking at Reed-Solomon codes, and how they can be used with Shamir Shares, and a good deal of the theory goes back to a paper published by the might Robert McEliece [here]:
In the paper, Robert outlines that Shamir Secret Shares are actually just an example of the Reed-Solomon code, but where we can only reveal one of the factors. And, of course, we see McEliece’s work coming back into relevance with the Classic McEliece key exchange method for Post Quantum Cryptography, and which was defined [here]:
