In response to requests from mission customers, NSA is publicly sharing guidance on quantum key distribution (QKD) and quantum cryptography (QC) as it relates to securing National Security Systems (NSS). Sharing guidance that was previously kept within internal government channels represents one aspect of NSA’s efforts to be more transparent in the way that we secure our nation’s most sensitive systems and engage with the greater cybersecurity community.
NSA is responsible for the cybersecurity of NSS, i.e., systems that transmit classified and/or otherwise sensitive data. Due to the nature of these systems, NSS owners require especially robust assurance in their cryptographic solutions; some amount of uncertainty may be acceptable for other system owners, but not for NSS. QKD is a method for using the physics of quantum mechanics to create a shared secret between two parties. While it has great theoretical interest and has been the subject of many widely publicized demonstrations, it suffers from limitations and implementation challenges that make it impractical for use in NSS operational networks. For more details, please read NSA’s QKD and QC guidance or go here to read the full news release.