Efficient Microcontroller Implementation of BIKE

In the digital world, public-key cryptography is ubiquitous. Current public-key crypto schemes like RSA or Diffie-Hellmann are in widespread use and they represent an indispensable asset of our technological toolbox. However, the discovery of Shor’s algorithm and the rapid progression in the field of quantum computers became a painful reminder of our alerting dependency on such technologies. At the same time, this realization started a demand for new cryptographic algorithms withstanding the power of quantum computers. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) aimed to satisfy this urge by initiating a standardization process in 2017 with a call for proposals of post-quantum key exchange mechanisms and signature algorithms. One of the submissions that made it to the second round is the key encapsulation mechanism BIKE.