Ideal lattice cryptography

Ideal lattices are a special class of lattices and a generalization of cyclic lattices. Ideal lattices naturally occur in many parts of number theory, but also in other areas. In particular, they have a significant place in cryptography. Micciancio defined a generalization of cyclic lattices as ideal lattices. They can be used in cryptosystems to decrease by a square root the number of parameters necessary to describe a lattice, making them more efficient. Ideal lattices are a new concept, but similar lattice classes have been used for a long time. For example cyclic lattices, a special case of ideal lattices, are used in NTRUEncrypt and NTRUSign.Ideal lattices also form the basis for quantum computer attack resistant cryptography based on the Ring Learning with Errors. These cryptosystems are provably secure under the assumption that the Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) is hard in these ideal lattices.