AI Changes Impersonation Economics
Synthetic media and voice cloning mean knowing a password or showing a photo is no longer evidence of identity. Authentication must prove the person, device, credential, and transaction are genuine.
MAITS Research · Publications & Whitepapers
Strategic Research & Whitepaper Library
Authoritative identity & trust research.
Executive monographs, architectural frameworks, and strategic guidance addressing frontier AI impersonation, post-quantum cryptography, and sovereign digital trust.
Peer-reviewed monographsPost-quantum readinessAI impersonation defenseNIST open standardsAotearoa NZ & global
Featured Executive Whitepaper
Identity in the Age of AI and Quantum Computing
Why proving who and what we can trust is becoming a foundational security problem.
Artificial intelligence is making convincing impersonation, synthetic media and personalised social engineering cheaper and more scalable. At the same time, future cryptographically relevant quantum computers threaten public-key algorithms that underpin digital signatures, certificates and identity systems. The shared issue is trust: AI makes identity easier to imitate, while quantum computing threatens parts of the cryptographic layer used to prove authenticity.
Central Architectural Thesis"AI challenges whether the evidence we see and hear is genuine. Quantum computing threatens some of the cryptography we use to prove what is genuine. Between them sits identity."
Identity Is the Security Perimeter
Organisations must distinguish between legitimate humans, compromised accounts, authorised cloud workloads, and AI agents acting autonomously on behalf of people and systems.
Authenticity Is at Stake Under Quantum
If public-key algorithms are compromised, the primary casualty is not just confidentiality—it is authenticity. Without resilient signatures, credentials cannot be verified.
Cryptographic Agility Is Required Now
Harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks and lengthy infrastructure migration cycles mean planning for PQC standards (ML-KEM, ML-DSA) must start well before quantum hardware matures.
Key Research Domains:AI Impersonation DefensePost-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)NIST SP 800-63A-4 & FIPS 203/204Passkeys & Phishing-Resistant AuthWorkload & AI Agent IdentityCryptographic Agility
Practical Guidance
What Organisations Should Start Doing Now
Summary of the 12 recommendations outlined in the whitepaper to build resilience against AI impersonation and prepare for post-quantum cryptographic transitions.
Immediate Identity Controls Uplift
- Treat identity as a core security control, not merely an application login function.
- Reduce password dependence and adopt phishing-resistant authentication (Passkeys / FIDO2).
- Strengthen identity proofing against synthetic media, replay, and injection attacks.
- Protect biometric data as highly sensitive and effectively non-replaceable.
- Bind high-risk transactions to explicit, context-aware authentication and authorisation.
- Establish clear identities for humans, workloads, machines, and autonomous AI agents.
- Replace unnecessary document copies with authoritative digital verification where appropriate.
Post-Quantum Readiness & Cryptographic Agility
- Inventory the use of RSA, ECC, and other public-key algorithms across certificates, APIs, applications, and infrastructure.
- Design for cryptographic agility so algorithms, key lengths, and certificate chains can be replaced without redesigning entire platforms.
- Build a post-quantum migration roadmap and test PQC or hybrid approaches where standards and vendor products support them.
- Assess long-lived credentials, archives, digital signatures, and confidential data for future migration or re-signing needs.
- Evaluate "harvest now, decrypt later" exposure where sensitive information must remain confidential for a decade or more.
Active Research Streams
Advancing the Discipline of Digital Trust
MAITS conducts ongoing analysis and reference architecture development across five strategic security pillars.
AI Impersonation & Synthetic Media
Presentation-attack detection, sensor integrity, and cryptographic evidence models under NIST SP 800-63A-4.
Post-Quantum Readiness
Migration roadmaps for NIST FIPS 203 (ML-KEM) and FIPS 204 (ML-DSA), mitigating harvest-now-decrypt-later risks.
Passkeys & Conditional Access
FIDO2 biometric binding, unphishable credentials, and step-up transaction authorization.
Decentralised Credentials
Reusable identity assertion frameworks, verifiable claims, and sovereign verification architectures.
Workload & AI Agent Identity
Governing autonomous non-human actors, workload tokens, and least-privilege delegated authority.
Consulting & Advisory
Assess your organisation's identity and cryptographic readiness.
MAITS works with leadership and architecture teams across New Zealand and Australia to review authentication controls, mitigate AI impersonation risk, and prepare for post-quantum transitions.