"NIST Maps Out the Migration to Post-quantum Cryptography"

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) released a draft document outlining migration challenges and approaches to making the migration from public-key cryptographic algorithms to quantum-resistant algorithms easier. Efforts to evaluate and select post-quantum encryption algorithms have been ongoing since 2016, with the migration process also expected to be a long one. As nothing can protect hardware, software, applications, or data from quantum-enabled adversaries, encryption keys and data will need to be re-encrypted with a quantum-resistant algorithm. In order to replace cryptographic algorithms, all system components, including protocols, schemes, and infrastructures, must be ready to process the new encryption scheme. Therefore, algorithm replacement is expected to be significantly disruptive and lengthy. NIST has described five implementation scenarios with the goal of identifying vulnerable cryptographic code, prioritizing the replacement of that code, and more. Each scenario addresses enterprise data center environments, including on-premises data centers and data hosted in public and hybrid clouds by owners or third-party providers. Organizations working with NIST on this project will install and test discovery tools and quantum-resistant components in an enterprise environment hosted by NCCoE's post-quantum cryptography laboratory. This article continues to discuss NIST's efforts to ease the migration to post-quantum cryptography. 

GCN reports "NIST Maps Out the Migration to Post-quantum Cryptography"