Faster crypto is the goal of ONR research effort

The Office of Naval Research has awarded a Small Business Innovation Research contract to Galois for the development of a workbench that will speed the development and testing of new cryptographic algorithms.

Built on tools and techniques created for defense and intelligence applications that verify the correctness of cryptographic software, Galois' workbench will help eliminate flaws and ensure that the encryption software fits performance requirements.

“It can take years and years for the cryptographic community to determine an algorithm is secure," said Aaron Tomb, Galois' research lead in software correctness. "In this project, we will explore ways to automate some of that burden while increasing the assurance level of the testing and verification. Our goal is to allow cryptographers in the defense and enterprise space to reach necessary assurance levels far more quickly and with more confidence.”

Once the suite of tools has been developed and tested, Galois aims to help integrate the workbench into government security frameworks. The company also plans to provide the workbench to industry partners that develop their own encryption software.

The cryptographic tools will also accelerate the discovery of various novel capabilities such as homomorphic encryption, attribute-based-encryption and post-quantum public-key algorithms at research institutes and universities around the world, the company said.