Keysight Technologies, Inc. today announced the industry’s first post-quantum cryptography (PQC) test automation solution, which is an addition to Keysight Inspector, helping device and chip suppliers identify and remediate hardware vulnerabilities.

Quantum computing is expected to perform complex calculations quickly. This calls for new PQC encryption algorithms to address cybersecurity threats. This is important for applications that capture encrypted data under the assumption that it can be decrypted later. However, new technologies that are assumed to be resilient to post-quantum attacks may be vulnerable to existing hardware-based attack methods.

To solve this problem, Keysight supports Keysight Inspector, which is provided by the recently acquired device security research and test lab 'Riscure'. The implementation of 'Dilithium Algorithm', one of the PQC algorithms, can be tested on the Keysight Inspector device security test platform.

Designers who adopt this algorithm in their hardware can verify that their products are safe from security threats. “This test solution can also be useful to government agencies and security testing labs that want to validate the robustness of third-party products,” Keysight said.

Keysight predicts that dozens of new security algorithms will be applied to industrial sites in the future. These algorithms require verifiable implementations, and Keysight Inspector will provide the necessary test tools along with certification services.

Keysight Inspector can also test chips and analyze silicon designs before implementation through hardware code pre-silicon simulation. For this, Rescue collaborated with PQShield, a PQC solution developer.

“Keysight will help us validate the robustness of our implementation early on,” said Dr. Axel Poschmann, vice president of PQShield Products. “We are pleased to continue the work we have done with Rescue within the Keysight portfolio and look forward to continuing this journey together.”

“Post-quantum resiliency does not guarantee complete security,” said Marc Witteman, director of Keysight’s Device Security Lab. “We have seen the latest post-quantum cryptography technologies struggle with hardware-based threats, and the need for comprehensive testing as these technologies are implemented at greater scale is clear. Keysight is addressing this need by adding post-quantum algorithm testing capability to our comprehensive device security test platform, the Keysight Inspector solution.”