Update on ISO/IEC standardization

[Kim Laine]

Dear HomomorphicEncryption.org community,

 

Good news – we have reached another milestone! We presented at the ISO/IEC JTC1 Working Group 2 (WG2 Cryptography and security mechanisms) plenary on April 12–16, where WG2 experts agreed unanimously to recommend advancing the Preliminary Work Item (PWI) 15150 – Fully Homomorphic Encryption, to the stage of a New Work Item (NWI). Subsequently, the US national body is supportive of this project and has agreed to submit it to ballot for final approval. As soon as the national bodies vote to follow the WG2 experts guidance to start the NWI, we will start working towards an international standard with a three years’ timeline.

 

The goal of the NWI is to extend the series of encryption standards in ISO/IEC 18033 with Part 8 – Fully Homomorphic Encryption. Part 8 will standardize appropriate security notions, specifications for BGV, BFV, CKKS, and CGGI/TFHE, test vectors, and security parameters for both classic and quantum-safe security. Ro Cammarota (US-expert), will continue acting as the project Editor, jointly with co-editors Kim Laine (US-expert), and Jung Hee Cheon (KR-expert). Among the many due thanks to WG2 expert contributors world-wide, we feel that special thanks go to Pascal Paillier and Ilaria Chillotti (FR-expert), Xianhui Lu (CN-expert), Gaetan Pradel (LU-expert), Jonathan Hammell (CA-expert), and Jung Hee Cheon (KR-expert).

 

This may be an appropriate time to start seriously considering the option of HomomorphicEncryption.org becoming a Category C liaison to the working group. This would allow the community to submit contributions and view all documents, but does not come with voting rights.

 

 

Best regards,

Kim and Ro