Long-Term Trustworthiness of Electronic Documents in the Era of Quantum Computers

This lecture will present the current state of quantum computing and explain why Shor’s algorithm poses a major threat to the asymmetric cryptographic systems widely used today. It will then focus on electronic signatures and trusted timestamps, their mathematical principles, and their role in ensuring the trustworthiness of electronic documents under the eIDAS framework.

Special attention will be given to the security risks that quantum computers may introduce in the area of electronic signatures and the time anchoring of documents. In the final part, hash-based systems and Merkle trees will be briefly introduced as possible principles for a more long-term resilient approach.