Advances in quantum computing increasingly threaten the security and privacy of data protected by current cryptosystems, particularly those relying on public-key cryptography. In response, the international cybersecurity community has prioritized the implementation of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), a new cryptographic standard designed to resist quantum attacks while operating on classical computers. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has already standardized several PQC algorithms and plans to deprecate classical asymmetric schemes, such as RSA and ECDSA, by 2035. Despite this urgency, PQC adoption remains slow, often due to limited developer expertise. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are intended to bridge this gap, yet prior research on classical security APIs demonstrates that poor usability of cryptographic APIs can lead developers to introduce vulnerabilities during implementation of the applications, a risk amplified by the novelty and complexity of PQC. To date, the usability of PQC APIs has not been systematically studied. This research presents an empirical evaluation of the usability of the PQC APIs, observing how developers interact with APIs and documentation during software development tasks. The study identifies cognitive factors that influence the developer's performance when working with PQC primitives with minimal onboarding. The findings highlight opportunities across the PQC ecosystem to improve developer-facing guidance, terminology alignment, and workflow examples to better support non-specialists.
A brief history on Homomorphic learning: A privacy-focused approach to machine learning
密码学和数据科学研究随着互联网的繁荣而呈指数级增长。传统的加密技术迫使用户在可用性、便利性和安全性之间做出权衡。加密使有价值的数据无法访问，因为每次执行任何操作都需要对其进行解密。可以节省数十亿美元，数百万人可以从加密方法中受益，这些方法不会在可用性，便利性和安全性之间妥协。同态加密就是这样一种范例，它允许对加密数据运行任意操作。它使我们能够运行任何复杂的机器学习算法，而无需访问底层原始数据。因此，同态学习提供了从由于各种政府和组织隐私规则而被忽视的敏感数据中获得见解的能力。本文追溯了Ronald L. Rivest和Len Alderman：“我们可以计算加密数据吗？”在1978年的论文中。然后，我们逐步遵循沙菲·戈德瓦瑟、克里斯汀·劳特、丹·邦奇、托马斯·桑德、唐纳德·比弗和克雷格·金特里的想法来解决这个至关重要的问题。经过30多年的集体努力，终于找到了这个重要问题的答案“是”。
