Key management | Digital signature schemes | Theoretical computer science | Quantum information science
Quantum digital signature
A Quantum Digital Signature (QDS) refers to the quantum mechanical equivalent of either a classical digital signature or, more generally, a handwritten signature on a paper document. Like a handwritten signature, a digital signature is used to protect a document, such as a digital contract, against forgery by another party or by one of the participating parties. As e-commerce has become more important in society, the need to certify the origin of exchanged information has arisen. Modern digital signatures enhance security based on the difficulty of solving a mathematical problem, such as finding the factors of large numbers (as used in the RSA algorithm). Unfortunately, the task of solving these problems becomes feasible when a quantum computer is available (see Shor's algorithm). To face this new problem, new quantum digital signature schemes are in development to provide protection against tampering, even from parties in possession of quantum computers and using powerful quantum cheating strategies. (Wikipedia).
