WATERLOO, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mark Pecen, chief operating officer of ISARA Corp., has been re-elected chairman of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute’s (ETSI) Quantum-safe Cryptography Working Group focused on setting standards for the implementation and deployment of quantum-safe cryptography to protect data and critical systems from a quantum computer enabled attack.
ISARA is the world’s leading provider of quantum-safe and crypto-agile security solutions and ETSI is the key global ICT standards-setting organization. ETSI’s quantum-safe cryptography working group is developing a standardized framework for the implementation of quantum-safe algorithms – and includes companies such as Amazon, IBM, Cisco, AT&T, Gemalto and Thales. Because they process information differently than digital computers, quantum computers are expected to be vastly more powerful and capable of cracking current encryption that protects everything from bank accounts to nuclear power plants.
“Standardized technologies are what serious users of security solutions want, because users like governments and OEMs are no longer willing to take the risks associated with proprietary solutions,’’ said Pecen, who was one of the founding members of the ETSI quantum-safe cryptography working group in 2015. “ETSI is focused on ensuring that the practical aspects of turning hard math problems into functional security products will result in systems that work together all around the world. The work of our members is crucial, because the pace of research and development makes the prospect of a stable, large-scale quantum computer within the next decade a very real possibility.”
The ETSI Quantum-safe Cryptography Working Group originally started out as the Quantum-safe Industry Specification Group and in March 2015 this group published one of the first comprehensive reports on quantum computing’s threat to public key cryptography. Since then, the group has published several reports and analyses that shape the way quantum-safe primitives will be deployed globally. The group meets five times a year at the ETSI headquarters in Sophia Antipolis, France.
Pecen is a former Senior VP for BlackBerry, Ltd., where he founded the Advanced Technology Research Centre and developed a significant portion of BlackBerry’s wireless and networking patent portfolio. He holds more than 100 patents in areas of wireless communication, networking and computing, many of which have been adopted in global standards, including those adopted by the Global System for Mobile Telecommunication (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA+), Long-Term Evolution (LTE) for 4G wireless, and others.
Pecen holds board positions at the University of Waterloo Institute for Quantum Computing, Wilfrid Laurier University Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Communication Research Centre (CRC) of Industry Canada, and several private and public companies in North America and Europe. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
To learn more about global quantum-safe standard-setting efforts by ETSI and other organizations, visit www.isara.com/standards.
About ISARA Corporation
ISARA Corporation, the world’s leading provider of agile quantum-safe security solutions, leverages decades of real-world cybersecurity expertise to protect today’s computing ecosystems in the quantum age. With our partners, we’re clearing the path to quantum-safe security for enterprises and governments by delivering practical, standardized solutions for a seamless migration. Co-founded in 2015 by former BlackBerry security executives, our team has since launched several first-of-its-kind solutions such as a quantum-safe cryptographic library, integration tools for developers, and agile technologies. With an emphasis on interoperability, we proudly collaborate on international standards-setting efforts. For more information, visit www.isara.com or follow @ISARACorp on Twitter.