Post Quantum Cryptography

Prepare your cyber security infrastructure for the post-quantum age

The development of quantum computers is a promising technology for various industries and fields of research. However, quantum computing, given its exponential advantages, also poses a significant threat to cyber security:

Quantum computers, with their advanced processing power, are by far superior to today’s supercomputers, and may be capable of calculating private keys. As a result, they present the possibility to crack established asymmetric encryption algorithms within seconds and bring entire business sectors to a standstill. Current public-key cryptography is expected to be compromised by a large-scale quantum computer, and symmetric algorithms will be significantly weakened.

Although the development of quantum computers is still in its infancy, organizations need to consider their cryptographic use cases now, so that their infrastructure, processes, and data remain secure. This field is called Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC).

Therefore, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is conducting a process to define algorithms that are to be standardized and recognized as quantum proof. Since the algorithms are still in the process of standardization and new developments are always emerging, it is important for organizations to be crypto-agile. Crypto Agility is the term used to describe the ability of information security protocols and standards to rapidly switch between algorithms, cryptographic primitives, and crypto assets –in a secure manner.

Utimaco’s General Purpose HSM are designed in accordance with crypto agile standards, allowing for firmware upgrades to add new PQC algorithms as soon as they are standardized and proven.

Our General Purpose Hardware Security Modules support stateful hash-based and lattice-based quantum-proof algorithms via a firmware extension:

• XMSS and XMSS-MT
• LMS and HSS
• CRYSTALS-KYBER
• CRYSTALS-Dilithium

Our products are in continuous research and development, taking the NIST standardization process into account.

Discover more about Utimaco’s Post Quantum solutions.