Doctoral Position

The Cybersecurity and Data Analytics research group at the University of Mondragon is looking for qualified applicants for a PhD position in Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).

Currently standardized public key cryptography, upon which widely deployed secure internet protocols depend on, is vulnerable to Shor’s polynomial-time quantum algorithm for the factoring and discrete logarithm problems. Moreover, substantial advances in quantum computing in the past decade have re-assured the scientific community about the necessity to build quantum-resistant cryptosystems.

PQC has raised as the preferred solution to face the threat that quantum computers pose to secure communications systems. The ongoing standardization process run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to define new standards for public-key encryption, digital signatures and key-exchange schemes has only augmented the attention towards PQC.

There exist several alternative problems to classical public key cryptography. Lattice-based cryptography, multivariate cryptography, hash-based cryptography schemes, isogeny-based cryptography and code-based cryptography can be used to design cryptosystems secure against both classical and quantum computers and are thus regarded as PQC algorithms.

There exist many paramount ingredients to take into account when considering the transition of secure internet protocols such as TLS, OpenVPN, or WireGuard to PQC. For instance, one of the main challenges that PQC raises is that, when compared to classical public key cryptography, its key sizes, ciphertext sizes or signature sizes, are often much larger. Also, the performance of PQC algorithms is generally worse than the one provided by present standards, and all these aspects vary depending on the specific PQC algorithm.

We are looking for students who are willing to conduct research on the impact of transitioning nowadays widely deployed secure internet protocols to post-quantum cryptography.

**Position details**
- Researcher profile: First Stage Researcher (R1).
- Research field: Cryptography, Computer Science, Engineering
- Type of contract: Temporary.
- Job status: Full time
- Hours per week: 40
- Application Deadline: 31-08-2023 (CET, GMT+01:00)
- Is the job funded through a EU Research Framework Programme? no

**Hiring Organisation & Offer Posting Contact Details**
- Organization: Mondragon Unibertsitatea. Faculty of Engineering.
- Organisation type: Higher Education Institute
- Location: 20500, Arrasate-Mondragon, Gipuzkoa, SPAIN
- Phone: +34934794700

**Requirements**:

- Education level: Applicants will hold a Master Degree in Cryptography, Applied Cryptography, Information Theory, Mathematics or Computer Science, or equivalent.
- **Other skills and experience (essential or desirable)**:

- Experience in developing in C, C++, Rust or Go
- Understanding of cryptographic algorithms and protocols
- Knowledge of side-channel attacks, fault injection, microarchitectural attacks, and their corresponding countermeasures.