Solving hard lattice problems and the security of lattice-based cryptosystems

This paper is a tutorial introduction to the present state-of-the-art in the field of security of lattice-based cryptosystems. After a short introduction to lattices, we describe the main hard problems in lattice theory that cryptosystems base their security on, and we present the main methods of attacking these hard problems, based on lattice basis reduction. We show how to find shortest vectors in lattices, which can be used to improve basis reduction algorithms. Finally we give a framework for assessing the security of cryptosystems based on these hard problems.