In conversation with our young researchers: Rafieh Mosaheb

19 November 2021

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Quantum safe e-voting.

We are decades away from quantum computers to be around and capable of running quantum algorithms. But we can not wait for those computers to here.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made electronic voting options a reality. It seems like a logical step considering the many other daily activities, like banking and shopping, that we conduct online. Yet, e-voting presents unique challenges, including security. How to provide protection when e-voting?

Rafieh Mosaheb is a PhD student at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg. With her thesis, she seeks to advance the state-of-the-art by building quantum safe e-voting schemes.

Building quantum safe e-voting protocles

Rafieh Mosaheb’s PhD thesis will focus on developing and prototyping practical e-voting schemes that are secure against attackers capable of performing arbitrary quantum computations.

Digital information and communication technologies, embedded in the fabric of modern society, enrich and make our lives easier. When used carefully, these same tools can also contribute to enriching and protecting fundamental mechanisms, such as elections, which are essential to the functioning of democratic societies. Indeed, elections are the foundation of democracy and as such, ensuring their security is of utmost importance. One of the main security challenges that needs to be addressed is the threat posed by the emergence of quantum computers. Despite the considerable number of well-designed secure electronic voting systems that have been proposed over the past decades, almost all existing systems depend on cryptography that will be broken by quantum algorithms.