BlackBerry Limited announced that it will provide support for quantum-resistant secure boot signatures for NXP® Semiconductors' crypto-agile S32G vehicle networking processors in a demonstration to illustrate how to mitigate the risk of potential quantum computing attacks on in-vehicle software. The new integration will allow software to be digitally signed using the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) recently endorsed CRYSTALS Dilithium digital signature scheme that will be quantum resistant, providing peace of mind to those relying on – and delivering – long lifecycle assets such as systems in critical infrastructure, industrial controls, aerospace and military electronics, telecommunications, transportation infrastructure, and connected cars. The collaboration is set to guard against an increasingly risky future when quantum computers will be able to easily break traditional code signing schemes.

While quantum computing promises to deliver huge leaps forward in processing power, it also has the potential to render today's public key cryptography useless. In recent months, NATO, the White House and NIST have all taken steps to prepare for a 'Y2Q' scenario in which quantum computers become weaponized by threat actors and many widely used security methods become useless against next-generation attacks. The BlackBerry® Certicom® Code Signing and Key Management Server leverages the NXP S32G chip's secure boot flow to achieve fast and agile quantum protection.

Using quantum-resistant signature schemes such as Dilithium for low-level device firmware, over-the-air software updates and software bills of material (SBOMs) mitigates the risk of potential quantum computing attacks on critical software updates, addressing a major security concern for a number of industries.