Root Causes 681: The Basis for Cryptographic Agility

In this episode, Jason and Tim start from the P versus NP question and use a Sudoku puzzle to show the difference between problems that are easy to check and hard to solve. We discuss why RSA and ECC, which rest on factorization, fall to Shor's algorithm and the quantum Fourier transform, and why lattice-based post-quantum algorithms such as ML-DSA were chosen. Because it is impossible to know which hard problem will survive AI-accelerated cryptanalysis, we make the case that cryptographic agility is essential. We also cover NIST's push for math diversity beyond lattices, and Apple's proposed Merkle Tree Certificate root program including SLH-DSA, so that MTCs can act as an abstraction layer that makes swapping algorithms practical.