Use Cases

Introducing PiQASO: Real-World Impact Across Industries
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‍PiQASO is at the forefront of securing critical infrastructure and services against the looming threat of quantum computing. Through a series of compelling Use Cases across diverse sectors – including Automotive, Automation, Finance, Energy, Healthcare, Aerospace, Online Media, UAVs, and Transportation – PiQASO demonstrates the practical application and tangible benefits of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). By integrating our innovative solutions, these industries are proactively fortifying their systems, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their data and operations in the quantum era. Explore how PiQASO is making a real-world difference in building a quantum-safe future.

UC1: Quantum-Secure Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication for Enhanced Transportation

Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication is fundamental for modern transportation, enabling a dynamic exchange of information between vehicles and roadside infrastructure to enhance road safety, optimize traffic flow, and facilitate intelligent transportation systems.In this context, ABI is exploring the application of PiQASO's Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) solutions to secure V2I communication channels against future quantum threats. By implementing PQC-enabled protection, PiQASO ensures the integrity and confidentiality of data exchanged between connected vehicles and infrastructure, preventing eavesdropping or manipulation. Specifically, this use case demonstrates how PiQASO's SDK modality can equip vehicles with quantum-resistant data encryption, safeguarding real-time information like location, speed, and destination during transmission. PQC-based key exchange mechanisms, leveraging PiQASO's as-a-service model, establish secure communication channels, mitigating vulnerabilities in traditional methods.The integration of PiQASO in V2I communication enables several key benefits:
‍Smart Traffic Management: Secure real-time communication allows traffic signals to dynamically adjust timing based on vehicle positions and intentions.
‍Incident Response: Vehicles can securely transmit incident details to traffic management centers using PQC-based authentication, ensuring data legitimacy.
‍Emergency Vehicle Prioritization: Secure V2I communication enables emergency vehicles to communicate their presence and route, allowing traffic signals to clear their path and reduce response times. By ensuring the security and integrity of data exchanged within the V2I ecosystem, PiQASO contributes to a more resilient and future-proof foundation for intelligent transportation systems, paving the way for safer and more efficient mobility.

UC2: Quantum-Resistant Communication for Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs)

As Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) become increasingly vital in industries like manufacturing and logistics, securing their communication channels is crucial. Traditional cryptography faces the risk of being compromised by quantum computers, jeopardizing sensitive data exchanged between AMRs, control systems, and other devices.To address this, PAL is exploring PiQASO's Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) solution to fortify the security of AMR communications. By adopting PiQASO, AMR systems can mitigate quantum threats and maintain the integrity and reliability of their autonomous operations.This use case focuses on establishing secure communication between the fleet manager and the AMRs before and during operation. The fleet manager, using an application equipped with PiQASO SDK, controls the AMRs, which are also connected to the industrial infrastructure for vital intralogistics information. These communication channels, secured by PiQASO's QR capabilities and crypto-as-a-service features, ensure that the exchange of data and trajectory information is both authenticated and encrypted.By leveraging PiQASO, PAL aims to:
‍Safeguard AMR Communication and Manipulation: Protect control signals and commands from potential quantum interference.
‍Ensure Quantum Security Over Exchanged Data: Encrypt critical operational data transmitted between AMRs and control systems.
‍Facilitate Secure Authorization: Regulate access to AMRs and their data, ensuring only authenticated entities can interact with them.Ultimately, the integration of PiQASO provides a robust layer of security for AMR communications, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and proper authorization necessary for reliable autonomous operations in the quantum era.

UC3: Fortifying Mobile Financial Transactions Against Quantum Threats

The financial services industry urgently needs Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) to protect mobile financial transactions from future quantum attacks, which could compromise current encryption. This is vital for safeguarding sensitive data, customer privacy, and trust in the financial system. While PQC offers a solution, its adoption in mobile payments faces technical, operational, and regulatory hurdles, especially considering the limited resources of mobile devices. Cloud-based PQC solutions offering crypto-as-a-service features are crucial to facilitate quantum security.This use case focuses on Secure mobile payments (e-wallet, e-banking), specifically the data transmission between end-user mobile devices and CaixaBank's cloud backend. This requires robust bi-directional authentication and data encryption. PiQASO addresses this by delegating intensive PQC operations to the cloud, enabling quantum-safe encryption/decryption, digital signatures, and authenticated channel establishment. This includes application- and attribute-layered encryption for granular access control and the integration of PiQASO KEMTLS on user devices for efficient authentication. The validation of crypto abstractions like lattice-based ABE for attribute-based access control and HE for updating encrypted data is also key.


UC4: Securing the Energy Supply Chain with Quantum-Resistant Communication

The interconnected nature of the energy sector supply chain, involving numerous stakeholders, makes it vulnerable to future quantum computing threats that could compromise traditional cryptographic methods. Integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) is therefore essential to fortify the sector's cybersecurity infrastructure.This use case focuses on end-to-end quantum-safe communication within electrical smart grids, critical systems for managing and optimizing power distribution. PiQASO artefacts are employed to secure communication channels from the smart grid to the cloud and main datacenter, integrating PQC into communication protocols, database encryption, and network infrastructure.PiQASO ensures QR end-to-end protection, safeguarding the integrity of data transmitted across the smart grid, from green energy producers to distributors. Quantum-safe authentication mechanisms verify the identities of devices, users, and applications. Resource-intensive PQC operations are outsourced to a cloud-based PQC-as-a-service model, facilitating secure authentication, encryption/decryption, and digital signatures. This includes application and attribute-layer encryption for granular access control. The PiQASO SDK is embedded on smart grid nodes for efficient authentication, while lightweight hardware-based modules secure resource-constrained edge devices. Validation includes lattice-based Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) for attribute-specific access control and Homomorphic Encryption (HE) for updating encrypted data.


UC5: Quantum-Safe Security for Healthcare Data and Digital Assistance

The healthcare sector's increasing digitalization, with services like remote monitoring and collaborative care, necessitates robust data protection due to the highly sensitive nature of patient information. Transmitting and sharing this data throughout the patient care pipeline demands strong cryptographic schemes to ensure enduring security and privacy. PiQASO aims to provide quantum-safe security solutions to unlock currently siloed data and enable continuous data-driven healthcare innovations.
‍Scenario 5.1: PQC-Enabled Assistive Healthcare and Remote Patient Monitoring Gateway
‍Remote patient monitoring systems require secure communication between medical devices at patients' homes, health gateways, patient apps, and various stakeholders via the cloud. This includes automatic data provisioning and interactions with healthcare personnel. PiQASO integration offloads resource-intensive PQC operations to the cloud, facilitating secure authentication and identity management across all entities. Application- and attribute-layered encryption provides quantum-safe access control. The PQC SDK on user devices enables efficient authentication with healthcare providers.
‍Scenario 5.2: Enhancing Smart Ambulances with PQC Capabilities
‍Efficient and secure transfer of critical patients relies on continuous authentication and authorization, especially with mobile devices connecting to public networks. PiQASO artefacts support advanced cryptographic operations needed for this constant authentication and secure data exchange between smart ambulances and legacy hospital systems, addressing the expanded attack vector due to device mobility.


UC6: Safeguarding Aviation Industry Testing and Maintenance Infrastructure Against Quantum Threats

The aviation industry's testing and maintenance infrastructure faces increasing vulnerability as quantum computing advances, threatening conventional cryptographic methods. For Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing, crucial for ensuring aircraft system safety and reliability, PiQASO adaptation is vital. It will secure simulation data, test configurations, and communication between hardware components, protecting the industry's intellectual property and maintaining confidence in validation processes. For aerospace maintenance service providers, handling sensitive data like aircraft health reports and maintenance schedules, PiQASO will establish quantum-resistant (QR) communication channels. This ensures that all transmitted data, including emails and data exchanges with stakeholders, remains confidential against quantum-enabled eavesdropping. QR authentication mechanisms will guarantee that only authorized personnel can access critical maintenance information, contributing to the overall safety and reliability of aircraft systems in the face of quantum advancements.PiQASO will fortify communication between HIL testing nodes and central control systems using PQ TLS for mutual authentication and PQC schemes for encrypted communication, ensuring secure configuration. Cloud-based PQC will secure sensitive simulation data storage and retrieval. For maintenance data, PiQASO SDK and PQC as-a-service will protect data storage and exchange, with QR communication protocols and crypto-as-a-service enabling end-to-end encryption and secure authorization.


UC7: Fortifying Online Media Services Against Quantum Threats

The online media ecosystem faces a growing need for Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) as quantum computers threaten traditional encryption methods protecting user billing information and media content. Online media providers like NOVA, handling vast amounts of sensitive data, must proactively implement PQC to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of user communications and media content in the quantum era.NOVA is integrating PiQASO artefacts across its communication infrastructure and media distribution networks to future-proof its online media services. This protects sensitive user data (personal and billing information) and ensures the privacy of communications, building user confidence. PQC is also applied to secure media services like content streaming and video-on-demand, encrypting transmission and distribution. PiQASO artefacts enhance authentication and authorization processes, bolstering user account security and preventing unauthorized access.By applying PiQASO SDK, user interactions are encrypted using quantum-resistant techniques, including secure key exchange. Media content transmission channels are secured using PiQASO PQC modalities. Personal and billing information is encrypted with PQC algorithms, securing databases and preventing breaches. This contributes to the resilience of NOVA's services, assuring users of the security and privacy of their online media interactions in the face of quantum advancements.


UC8: Future-Proofing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Communications with Quantum-Resistant Technology

Modern UAVs, increasingly used in collaborative and safety-critical applications, face significant security challenges, including eavesdropping and unauthorized control. ACCELI will use its multi-purpose UAV fleet to test and showcase PiQASO's solutions to these security and operational challenges in a real-world collaborative environment.A key focus is establishing secure communication channels between ground control stations and drones before takeoff, essential for exchanging mission-critical data and trajectory information with robust authentication and encryption. Implementing advanced Post-Quantum Cryptographic (PQC) algorithms is crucial to ensure this communication remains secure against both current and future quantum threats, safeguarding sensitive data and enhancing mission reliability.PiQASO's modalities will be tested in resource-constrained UAV environments. This validation will examine PiQASO's comprehensive PQC scheme integration with both drones and ground stations, demonstrating the effectiveness of a Trusted Computing Base and the configurability of software. Benchmarking of lattice-based Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEM) and digital signature schemes will be conducted under various design modalities to ensure their robustness and efficiency in real-world drone operations, guaranteeing reliable deployment of secure communication solutions even in resource-limited settings.


UC9: Quantum-Secure Railway Monitoring

Integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) is crucial for railway monitoring services to safeguard critical data transmitted by sensors and communication systems against future quantum threats. Adopting PQC will fortify railway infrastructure, secure real-time monitoring data, and maintain the reliability and safety of the entire network.This use case involves STROWL, a railway monitoring service provider using autonomous drones for track inspection, and FGC, a railway manager. Drones report detected anomalies via wireless links to a cloud-based system, notifying personnel through a web service. PQC is essential to secure communication and data integrity between drones and the central monitoring system, including its database. QR authentication, leveraging signature-based or pre-distributed shared keys, is needed for railway managers accessing the system. PiQASO artefacts will protect drone-transmitted information and fortify monitoring data retrieval, ensuring authorized access.Implementation involves integrating PiQASO into STROWL's monitoring ecosystem and FGC's digital infrastructure. PiQASO SDK and the PQC as-a-service modality will ensure the legitimacy of drone information and secure data storage and exchange. FGC will leverage PiQASO for authentication, quantum-safe encryption/decryption, and digital signatures to enhance secure channels for shared monitoring data.

The project funded under Grant Agreement No. ​101190366​ is supported by the European Cybersecurity Competence CentreFunded by the European Union.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Cybersecurity Competence Centre.
Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.