NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process

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gov . Information Technology Laboratory Computer Security Resource Center Post-Quantum Cryptography PQC Short URL: https://www. nist.

gov/pqcrypto For a plain-language introduction to post-quantum cryptography, see What Is Post-Quantum Cryptography?

PQC Standards | Migration to PQC | Ongoing PQC Standardization Process NIST’s Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) project leads the national and global effort to secure electronic information against the future threat of quantum computers—machines that may be years or decades away but could eventually break many of today’s widely used cryptographic systems.

Through a multi-year international competition involving industry, academia, and governments, NIST released the principal three PQC standards in 2024 and is developing additional standards to serve as backups or alternatives. Organizations should begin applying these standards now to migrate their systems to quantum-resistant cryptography.

Alongside these standards, NIST conducts foundational cryptographic research; collaborates with industry and federal partners to guide organizations preparing for PQC migration; and administers the Cryptographic Module Validation Program to promote validated, trustworthy cryptography. These efforts both protect data and information systems and sustain U.S. leadership in quantum information science and cryptographic innovation.

In August 2024, NIST released its principal PQC standards (as Federal Information Processing Standards, or FIPS), specifying key establishment and digital signature schemes based on candidates evaluated and selected through this multi-year process.

Key-Encapsulation Mechanism Standard Digital Signature Standard Digital Signature Standard With the release of the first three final PQC standards, organizations should begin migrating their systems to quantum-resistant cryptography. Cybersecurity products, services, and protocols will need updates, and organizations must identify where vulnerable algorithms are used and plan to replace or update them.

Under the transition timeline in NIST IR 8547 , NIST will deprecate and ultimately remove quantum-vulnerable algorithms from its standards by 2035, with high-risk systems transitioning much earlier.

The Migration to Post-Quantum Project at the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence is working with industry, academia, and federal partners to accelerate this shift by demonstrating tools to find and prioritize vulnerable systems, supporting interoperable solutions, and developing migration guidance.

Ongoing PQC Standardization Process NIST expects that the two digital signature standards (ML-DSA and SLH-DSA) and key-encapsulation mechanism standard (ML-KEM) will provide the foundation for most deployments of post-quantum cryptography. They can and should be put into use now. NIST continues to evaluate the security and performance of innovative algorithms in order to identify additional candidates for standardization.

In addition to the three algorithms specified in the initial FIPS standards, the Falcon digital signature algorithm and HQC key encapsulation mechanism were selected for ongoing standardization; that process is underway. This process continues with a longer-term effort that solicited additional algorithms for digital signature schemes that could serve as a backup to ML-DSA or that could address unique use cases.

Learn more on the Additional Digital Signature Schemes page. HQC was selected for standardization on March 11, 2025. NIST IR 8545, Status Report on the Fourth Round of the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process is now available.

FIPS 203, FIPS 204 and FIPS 205 , which specify algorithms derived from CRYSTALS-Dilithium, CRYSTALS-KYBER and SPHINCS + , were published August 13, 2024 . Additional Digital Signature Schemes - Round 2 Submissions PQC License Summary & Excerpts NIST initiated a process to solicit, evaluate, and standardize one or more quantum-resistant public-key cryptographic algorithms.

Full details can be found in the Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization page. In recent years, there has been a substantial amount of research on quantum computers – machines that exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to solve mathematical problems that are difficult or intractable for conventional computers.

If large-scale quantum computers are ever built, they will be able to break many of the public-key cryptosystems currently in use. This would seriously compromise the confidentiality and integrity of digital communications on the Internet and elsewhere.

The goal of post-quantum cryptography (also called quantum-resistant cryptography) is to develop cryptographic systems that are secure against both quantum and classical computers, and can interoperate with existing communications protocols and networks. The question of when a large-scale quantum computer will be built is a complicated one.

While in the past it was less clear that large quantum computers are a physical possibility, many scientists now believe it to be merely a significant engineering challenge. Some engineers even predict that within the next twenty or so years sufficiently large quantum computers will be built to break essentially all public key schemes currently in use.

Historically, it has taken almost two decades to deploy our modern public key cryptography infrastructure. Therefore, regardless of whether we can estimate the exact time of the arrival of the quantum computing era, we must begin now to prepare our information security systems to be able to resist quantum computing.

VIDEO: Post-Quantum Encryption: A Q&A With NIST’s Matt Scholl Post-Quantum Cryptography: the Good, the Bad, and the Powerful The Secretary of Commerce approved three Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) for post-quantum cryptography: FIPS 203, Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism Standard FIPS 204, Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Standard FIPS 205, Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Standard Comments Requested on Three Draft FIPS for Post-Quantum Cryptography Draft FIPS 203, Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism Standard Draft FIPS 204, Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Standard Draft FIPS 205, Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Standard Request for Nominations for Public-Key Post-Quantum Cryptographic Algorithms Request for Comments on Submission Requirements and Evaluation Criteria PQC Standardization Process Additional Digital Signature Schemes PQC Crypto Technical Inquiries post-quantum cryptography Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography | NCCoE Multi-Party Threshold Cryptography PQC Digital Signature Schemes PQC Standardization Process Additional Digital Signature Schemes PQC Crypto Technical Inquiries post-quantum cryptography Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography | NCCoE Multi-Party Threshold Cryptography PQC Digital Signature Schemes Created January 03, 2017 , Updated August 05, 2026