A selection of the most important recent news, articles, and papers about Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).
General News, Articles, and Analyses
Post-Quantum Cryptography Coalition Publishes Comparison of International PQC Standards
Author: MITRE
(Thursday, September 5, 2024) “The coalition surveyed international regulatory bodies that are defining the quantum-resistance requirements to be followed by technology vendors used in national or government security systems. They created a reference of international PQC requirements and are identifying alignment and misalignment areas, which could pose challenges for international vendor compliance and interoperability.”
U.S. Army Selects QuSecure Solution for Upcoming “Enhanced Post-Quantum Cryptography Suite for Tactical Networks” Research Project
(Tuesday, September 10, 2024) “This SBIR Phase II award further establishes QuSecure as a leading provider of Federal PQC solutions. The contract scope of work is organized to further enhance QuProtect™, the industry’s first end-to-end PQC software-based solution that enables organizations to springboard from cryptographic discovery and non-compliant algorithm detection straight to full quantum-resilience with live encryption management, continuous monitoring, vulnerability and alerting capabilities – all which can be achieved without the need to rip-and-replace current infrastructure.”
As quantum computing threats loom, Microsoft updates its core crypto library | Ars Technica
Author: Dan Goodin
(Thursday, September 12, 2024) “The first new algorithm Microsoft added to SymCrypt is called ML-KEM. Previously known as CRYSTALS-Kyber, ML-KEM is one of three post-quantum standards formalized last month by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The KEM in the new name is short for key encapsulation. KEMs can be used by two parties to negotiate a shared secret over a public channel. Shared secrets generated by a KEM can then be used with symmetric-key cryptographic operations, which aren’t vulnerable to Shor’s algorithm when the keys are of a sufficient size.”
Chrome to adopt NIST-approved post quantum encryption on desktop | TechRadar
Author: Chiara Castro
(Tuesday, September 17, 2024) “Google is set to upgrade its post-quantum encryption protection on its web browser desktop with the new Chrome 131 release. This comes as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) officially released the first three quantum-resistant approved algorithms on August 13, 2024. The Tech giant first introduced hybrid quantum-safe encryption back in April based on the experimental Kyber TLS key exchange system and has now decided to switch to the new ML-KEM standard.”
Cryptomathic and PQShield form strategic alliance to offer PQC solutions for code signing and data protection in compliance with latest NIST and CNSA recommendations
Author: PQShield
(Thursday, September 19, 2024) “Cryptomathic, an acknowledged security software provider for advanced key management solutions with numerous innovations in cryptographic agility, and PQShield, a cybersecurity company specializing in quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions, have agreed a strategic alliance that will enable clients from various industries to transition to Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and comply with migration mandates from CNSA 2.0 and also implement the recently approved NIST algorithms.”
HSBC pilots quantum technology for tokenised gold | HSBC News
(Thursday, September 19, 2024) “As part of the quantum pilot, Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum computing company, used PQC algorithms1 and its Quantum Origin quantum randomness technology to demonstrate holistic protection of digital assets such as HSBC gold tokens from a quantum computing attack, and prevent “store now, decrypt-later” (SNDL) cyber incidents. SNDL is a cyber-technique that has the aim of stealing sensitive data now and then storing it to decipher that data later, using powerful quantum computers in the future.”
