Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography: Preparation for Considering the Implementation and Adoption of Quantum Safe Cryptography

Date Published: April 24, 2023
Comments Due: June 8, 2023 (public comment period is CLOSED)
Email Questions to: applied-crypto-pqc@nist.gov

Author(s)

William Newhouse (NIST), Murugiah Souppaya (NIST), William Barker (Dakota Consulting), Christopher Brown (MITRE)

Announcement

The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has published for comment Preliminary Draft NIST SP 1800-38A, Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography. 

The public comment period for this draft is open through June 8, 2023.

We value and welcome your input and look forward to your comments.

Project Description

Advances in quantum computing could compromise many of the current cryptographic algorithms being widely used to protect digital information, necessitating replacement of existing algorithms with quantum-resistant ones. Previous initiatives to update or replace installed cryptographic technologies have taken many years, so it is critical to begin planning for the replacement of hardware, software, and services that use affected algorithms now so that data and systems can be protected from future quantum computer-based attacks.

NIST has been soliciting, evaluating, and standardizing quantum-resistant public-key cryptographic algorithms (https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/post-quantum-cryptography). To complement this effort, the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) is engaging with industry collaborators and regulated industry sectors and the U.S. Federal Government to bring awareness to the issues involved in migrating to post-quantum algorithms and to prepare the crypto community for migration. 

As the project progresses, this preliminary draft will be updated, and additional volumes will also be released for comment.

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