Itus: A Flexible Hardware Bridge for Quantum-Resistant Cryptographic Agility and Transition

Secure Micro Technologies is introducing a cutting-edge solution, Itus Bridge, aimed at enhancing the interoperability of various cryptographic domains within the computing network. This innovative design involves the development of programmable quantum-resistant hardware security modules (PQC-HSM) featuring two distinct domains. One domain supports classical encryption, while the other supports post-quantum encryption. These domains are bridged by a RISC-V based enclave that enables secure execution, acceleration, and programmability within the network. This unique architecture for HSM sets itself apart from others in the industry and is believed to be the first platform offering provable security guarantees for interoperability. Secure Micro Technologies has completed and formally-verified proprietary intellectual property (IP) for three key modules of the Itus Bridge Architecture. Secure Micro intellectual property (IP) portfolio includes a variety of secure RISC-V cores, hardware components dedicated to executing polynomial and scalar operations over finite field, classical encryption and decryption accelerators, and efficient hardware implementations of noise samplers such as rejection, Box-Muller, and Ziggurat methods. The objective of the proposed effort is to integrate and evaluate the three-module architecture for its feasibility, performance, and security.