"NIST Previews Post-Quantum Cryptography Challenges"

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has released the final version of a white paper titled "Getting Ready for Post-Quantum Cryptography: Exploring Challenges Associated with Adopting and Using Post-Quantum Cryptographic Algorithms." The purpose of this paper is to help organizations prepare for post-quantum cryptography. NIST has been working with researchers to develop cryptographic algorithms that can withstand the privacy and security threats that quantum computers will present. The paper emphasizes that the transition from today's standards to the new post-quantum public-key standards will likely be more challenging than the introduction of new classical cryptographic algorithms. As there is still a lack of implementation planning, it may take decades before the community replaces most of the vulnerable public-key systems being used today. It will not be easy to replace currently used encryption standards with quantum-resistant ones as some quantum-resistant candidate algorithms involve enormous signature sizes, require excessive processing, and use significantly large public or private keys. These factors would make it challenging to implement the solution widely. NIST emphasizes the need for various post-quantum algorithms in order to overcome sensitivity to large signature sizes and other implementation constraints. This article continues to discuss NIST's key points surrounding post-quantum cryptography challenges and how to overcome them. 

GCN reports "NIST Previews Post-Quantum Cryptography Challenges"