NIST Announces New Hash Algorithm Competition
January 6, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced the First SHA-3 Candidate Conference, an open cryptographic competition to select a new "hash" algorithm for securing digital signatures and other information security applications.
The conference is scheduled for Feb. 25-28, 2009 at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, immediately following the 16th International Workshop on Fast Software Encryption.
The purpose of the NIST-sponsored competition, which has inspired dozens of entries from around the world, will be to select a new algorithm - SHA-3 - that is more secure and efficient than its predecessors.
A hash algorithm is a widely-used mathematical tool that converts a file, message or block of data to a short "fingerprint" for use in digital signatures, message authentication and other computer security applications.
At the February conference, the first-round candidates will be presented by their submitters, and NIST will discuss the next steps of the competition. By 2012, NIST plans to hold two more conferences to narrow down the candidates and decide upon the finalist, which will then be incorporated into government cryptographic standards.
Because of the large response to the competition, it appears that the number of accepted submissions will considerably exceed the number NIST and the community can thoroughly analyze in a reasonable time.
NIST is considering ways to involve the cryptographic community in quickly reducing the number of submissions to a more manageable number. The process and criteria for this selection will be a major topic of this conference.
For more information on the conference, see the web page on NIST's Computer Security Resource Center.
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).