(September 3, 2024) The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has finalized its principal set of encryption algorithms designed to withstand cyberattacks from a quantum computer. Researchers around the world are racing to build quantum computers that would operate in radically different ways from ordinary computers and could break the current encryption that provides security and privacy for just about everything we do online. To defend against this vulnerability, the recently announced algorithms are specified in the first completed standards from NIST’s post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standardization project and are ready for immediate use. These post-quantum encryption standards secure a wide range of electronic information, from confidential email messages to e-commerce transactions that propel the modern economy. NIST is encouraging computer system administrators to begin transitioning to the new standards as soon as possible.
Read the full announcement from NIST: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/08/nist-releases-first-3-finalized-post-quantum-encryption-standards
Read more about PQC in this explainer: https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity/what-post-quantum-cryptography