Review of Privacy-Preserving and Anonymous Signature Schemes Resilient to Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Communication and networked systems rely heavily on cryptographic digital signatures to ensure message authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation. However, rapid advancements in quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) have expanded the attack surface, posing significant threats to conventional public-key schemes such as RSA, DSA, and ECDSA. Quantum algorithms undermine their underlying hardness assumptions, while AI-driven techniques enable traffic analysis, side-channel inference, and behavioral pattern recognition. This review presents a structured analytical assessment of post-quantum signature schemes and privacy-preserving authentication mechanisms to address these dual threats. It evaluates lattice-based, hash-based, and zero-knowledge proof-based signatures, as well as anonymity-enhancing schemes such as ring and group signatures. A unified analytical framework is introduced to map cryptographic schemes to quantum and AI-assisted threat models, based on parameters such as security strength, anonymity, efficiency, and applicability. The analysis shows that lattice- and hash-based schemes provide strong quantum resistance, while privacy-preserving mechanisms enhance anonymity but introduce performance trade-offs. It also identifies a gap in integrating post-quantum cryptography with AI-resilient privacy mechanisms. The findings highlight the need for unified, future-ready cryptographic designs.