PhD in Quantum-Safe Cryptography

Do you enjoy working in an interdisciplinary research setting on intellectually challenging and societally relevant questions? The Informatics Institute is looking for an ambitious PhD candidate. Your research is part of the NWO-funded research project 'Quantum Impact on Societal Security'.

As the potential risks and consequences of cybersecurity breaches of existing cryptography by future quantum computers would be devastating, there is an urgent need to prepare for a transition to quantum-safe cryptography (QSC). Addressing the many complexities of this transition requires a multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, financial and governmental institutions, and civil society groups. The 'Quantum Impact on Societal Security' (QISS) consortium will analyse the technical, ethical, legal and societal impact of this upcoming society-wide transition. QISS's objective is to contribute to the creation of a Dutch ecosystem where quantum-safe cryptography can thrive, and mobilize this ecosystem to align technological applications with ethical, legal, and social values.

QISS is a project led by the University of Amsterdam and carried out together with QuSoft , Fontys University of Applied Sciences and other academic, governmental, financial, and societal partners. The project leader is Dr. Sebastian De Haro and the co-PIs are Prof. Dr. Christian Schaffner , Prof. Dr. Sonja Smets , Dr. Ot van Daalen , Prof. Dr. Joris van Hoboken , Dr. Bart Wernaart , and Prof. Dr. Jeroen van Dongen .

QISS is funded by the National Science Agenda of NWO, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Dutch Banking Association. You will be part of a new research group, hosted at the Amsterdam Science Park .

We specifically encourage women and other underrepresented groups to apply for this position.

What are you going to do

Your PhD will be supervised by experts at the Informatics Institute , in collaboration with the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation and Rathenau Institute . You will be part of the Amsterdam quantum hub bringing together top scientists, engineers, students, and businesses, and be an active member of the Dutch quantum community. At QISS, you will work closely together with another PhD candidate, two postdocs, and the project's (co-)PIs. You will also work together with financial institutions (the Dutch Banking Association , De Nederlandsche Bank and ABN-AMRO ) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs .

Your specific tasks will include:

• identifying information-processing systems and devices where (public- and private-key) cryptography is currently in use. This can be in hardware (smart cards, laptops, desktop computers, servers, telecommunication infrastructure including mobile phones, internet of things) or software (operating systems, web-servers and browsers, crypto currencies, etc.);
• creating an inventory of systems, people, branches of business, etc., that will be affected by the presence of attackers with sufficiently powerful quantum computers to break established cryptography;
• identifying the kind of information that is secured by the identified systems and how long the data needs to be protected;
• determining the consequences when the identified systems are no longer secure;
• determining how technically difficult and costly it will be to change the identified systems to quantum-safe cryptography;
• performing a study of the economic impact QSC, incorporating key information from the financial and governmental sectors;
• writing academic publications in peer-reviewed international journals;
• presenting at conferences;
• organizing meetings with partners.

As the PhD student in the first work package of QISS, you will be the consortium's point of communication, on the more technical side, with our financial and governmental partners, as well as with other Dutch and international researchers currently working on this topic.

PhD candidates furthermore are expected to contribute to the institute's educational mission, e.g., by working as teaching assistants for courses in their area of expertise and by assisting with the supervision of student research projects.