NIST has announced the ten finalists in its lightweight cryptography standardization process, selecting them from the second-round candidates. The final round of the standardization process is expected to last approximately 12 months, during which the finalist submission teams will have the opportunity to provide updated specifications and implementations. NIST will publish a detailed description of the decision process and rationale for selection in the upcoming weeks, available from the Lightweight Cryptography (LWC) Project Page. The agency thanks the designers of the second-round candidates and those who have contributed to the selection process by providing security and performance analysis of the candidates. NIST hopes that the submission teams of candidates that were not selected to advance will continue to participate in the evaluation of the finalists along with the cryptographic community at large. Further guidelines on the tweak proposals will be provided in the upcoming days. Questions may be directed to lightweight-crypto@nist.gov.
Keywords: lightweight cryptography, standardization process, cryptographic community
