WISeKey and MINES Saint-Etienne Research Institute Collaborate to Secure Post-Quantum Economy

WISeKey and MINES Saint-Etienne Research Institute Collaborate to Secure Post-Quantum Economy

While quantum computing offers endless perspectives to incredibly increase computing power, hackers will take advantage of this technology to crack cryptography algorithms, corrupt cybersecurity and compromise global economy. Wisekey and MINES Saint-Etienne Research Institute team up to find new post-quantum resistant algorithms.

Meyreuil & Gardanne, France – June 10, 2021: WISeKey International Holding Ltd. ("WISeKey”) (SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a leading global cybersecurity and IoT company, and MINES Saint-Etienne Research Institute ("MINES Saint-Etienne”), an internationally renowned multidisciplinary university and labs created in 1816, today announced they are starting a new R&D cooperation to help the international community find cryptography algorithms that will resist future quantum computing based cyber-attacks. They will jointly participate in the related US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standardization program (NIST PQC) launched in 2016.

Researches about quantum computing, namely how to use quantum mechanical phenomena to perform fast computation, were initiated in the early 1980s. The perspectives and unbelievable performances offered by this promising technology are so huge that many countries are sponsoring public/private R&D initiatives. With the French Quantum Program launched by President Macron in January 2021, and worth 1.8 billion euros over 5 years, France has rejoint the USA and China in the Top-3 countries leading this international race. WISeKey and MINES Saint-Etienne will be cooperating in this context.

This cooperation will take place on both the theoretical and the practical grounds.

WISeKey brings its decades of expertise in designing Common Criteria EAL5+ and FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certified hardware based secure elements (MS600x secure microcontrollers, VaultIC™, …) and in developing hacker resistant firmware. The new algorithms to be evaluated will first have to practically run on WISeKey’s existing and new hardware architectures. The company will also share its expertise in deep learning AI techniques to prove the robustness of the implementations.

MINES Saint-Etienne has developed an international expertise in applied mathematics, cryptography and computational sciences since its inception, more than two centuries ago. Inspiring innovation is at the heart of this public academy, as demonstrated by many studies and publications acknowledged by the worldwide scientific community. Highly qualified PhD researchers and students will be involved in this public/private unique partnership.

"Digital security is the combination of hardware and software specific capabilities. This is exactly where WISeKey have been investing for many years to bring the best cybersecurity on the market,” said Bernard Vian, General Manager of WISeKey Semiconductors. "We are very enthusiastic about this cooperation with MINES Saint-Etienne which will ultimately result in the best of both: the best post-quantum algorithms implementation in future proof secure microcontrollers.”

Dominique Feillet, Head of the Microelectronics Center of Provence – MINES Saint-Etienne, added: "The scientific excellence we have been building day after day for so many years in our labs would just be a non-sense if it did not meet industrial reality. This is actually the founding principle of MINES Saint-Etienne. Our collaboration with WISeKey once again illustrates this principle. Together, we will be delivering the best trade-off between efficiency and market reality.”

To learn more about WISeKey’s cybersecurity propositions, visit WISeKey.com.
To learn more about MINES Saint-Etienne, visit MINES Saint-Etienne.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.).  WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

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About MINES Saint-Etienne

École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne is a graduate engineering school and research institute aka « Grande École d’Ingénieurs » founded in 1816. Our range of career-focused diplomas will open doors to some of the best careers in the field of engineering and enable you to build your own international network. Our mission is to support the economy by:

• Educating highly qualified managers with strong technical and scientific skills;
• Developing applied research to meet the needs of industry;
• Contributing to companies’ innovation, creation & competitiveness worldwide.
• Our academic standing is committed to excellence, to a wealth of subject fields, and we desire to offer each student a curriculum tailored to his or her goals and the realities of the economic world.

Partnerships are and always will be important to us. We welcome foreign students, who may enroll in all or part of our master degree programs – some of which are partly or fully conducted in English. Courses in French as a foreign language are offered on a regular basis and can be individually tailored. Foreign students may also work on their master theses at the École des Mines, for which regional and national grants are available. Visiting professors are welcome too and our doors are always open to foreign PhD candidates or to co-supervision of doctoral theses.

Press contact:
MINES Saint-Etienne
Contact: Celine Ducoin
Head of Communication
celine.ducoin@emse.fr

Disclaimer:
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.