It is believed that traditional asymmetric cryptosystems are compromised and symmetric cryptography can be used in the post-quantum world. In this paper, a new model based on post-quantum a set of FLAT (PQ-FLAT) protocol is proposed to ensure security in the machine to machine communication with post-quantum cryptography and it is inspired by the federated lightweight authentication of things (FLAT) protocol, which works effectively for resource-constrained devices in machine to machine (M2M) communication systems. The proposed model includes resource-constrained devices, certificate provider (CP), and service provider (SP). Communication of the certificate provider between resource-constrained devices is encrypted with AES. Instead of the asymmetric cryptography system between the certificate provider and the service provider, a lattice-based encryption mechanism, secure in the post-quantum world, is used. Thus, the FLAT protocol for resource-constrained devices is made resistant to post-quantum changes.
It is believed that traditional asymmetric cryptosystems are compromised and symmetric cryptography can be used in the post-quantum world. In this paper, a new model based on post-quantum a set of FLAT (PQ-FLAT) protocol is proposed to ensure security in the machine to machine communication with post-quantum cryptography and it is inspired by the federated lightweight authentication of things (FLAT) protocol, which works effectively for resource-constrained devices in machine to machine (M2M) communication systems. The proposed model includes resource-constrained devices, certificate provider (CP), and service provider (SP). Communication of the certificate provider between resource-constrained devices is encrypted with AES. Instead of the asymmetric cryptography system between the certificate provider and the service provider, a lattice-based encryption mechanism, secure in the post-quantum world, is used. Thus, the FLAT protocol for resource-constrained devices is made resistant to post-quantum changes.
The rapid proliferation of IoT technology has brought billions of devices into play that need to operate in a variety of diverse, resource-constrained environments. Secure authentication among these devices is a critical challenge, as traditional certificate-based public key infrastructures incur heavy computation and management overhead. Moreover, recent breakthroughs in quantum computing put at risk the security of classical cryptographic algorithms commonly used in IoT systems. This paper proposes a post-quantum certificateless authentication framework designed to address the efficiency-long-term security requirements of IoT environments. The proposed framework uses lattice-based cryptography to resist quantum-enabled adversaries while eliminating the need for digital certificates. The certificateless approach evades the problem of key escrow of identity-based cryptography and simplifies the key management process. A lightweight authentication protocol, which is suitable for constrained IoT devices, is developed. Security analyses prove that our proposed framework resists common attacks such as impersonation, replay, and man-in-the-middle attacks. The performance evaluation shows that our proposed framework reduces the communication and computational overheads compared with the traditional certificatebased authentication schemes. In this way, it is appropriate for large-scale and futureproof deployments of IoT systems.
In resource-constrained devices such as Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), the possibility of using authentication and key exchange methods, which include the mutual verification of two parties to ensure the security of communication, provides a significant advantage. As the cost efficient computations may not be efficiently performed on resource-constrained devices, security is the main problem for SIMs. With the advancing technology and the use of quantum computers, it is predicted that this may lead to threats. It is a well-known fact that security on traditional public key cryptosystems will become vulnerable by using quantum computers due to Shor’s algorithm. In this paper, two different resistant to quantum attacks structures are proposed to ensure secure communication between SIM and service providers. In the proposed methods, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256) is used for communication with resource-constrained devices, and N-th degree Truncated polynomial Ring Units (NTRU) encryption system is used for communication with servers. Two methods are proposed, one with the private key and one without the private key in the production phase. This protocol provides authentication, data privacy and integrity for post-quantum SIM cards. The proposed method is inspired by the FLAT (Federated Lightweight Authentication) protocol. However, the main difference from the FLAT protocol is that it has more nodes and is resistant to quantum attacks.
This massive rate of expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has brought about an immediate demand of safer and efficient communication methods with the capacity to endure upcoming cyber threats of the quantum age. Conventional cryptographic keys like RSA and ECC are getting more susceptible to quantum attacks and thus quantum-proof modules should be developed. This study introduces a Quantum-Resilient Communication Protocol, a lightweight cryptography-authentication post-quantum cryptography protocol, an integration of lattice and AES-GCM encryption with HMAC-based authentication to enable more resource-constrained IoT devices to be amely secured. MATLAB and NS-3 were used to simulate the proposed protocol and the performance of the proposed protocol was compared to a traditional ECC-based IoT protocol. The findings indicated that QRCP had improvement in the latency, throughput and energy savings over 40 percent and it was found that QRCP resisted quantum attack of Shor and Grover. The results justify the practicality of integrating the post-quantum cryptographic exceptors in the IoT network and provide a scalable, energy-saving, and future-enabling paradigm of the secure communication in the quantum era of computational computing.
Quantum computing poses a significant threat to classical asymmetric cryptography, which is essential for ensuring confidentiality, authentication, and key exchange in contemporary digital infrastructures. Although post-quantum cryptography (PQC) provides mechanisms that resist quantum attacks, its implementation in Internet of Things (IoT) systems is challenged by constrained resources, including limitations in computation, memory, energy, latency, and bandwidth, and the heterogeneity of devices. This paper offers a comprehensive narrative review of PQC approaches applicable to IoT, systematically organizing 30 peer-reviewed studies published between 2022 and 2026 across four layers: device, communication, distributed trust, and application. Additionally, the review examines two cross-cutting dimensions, privacy and side-channel resistance. The analysis indicates a significant prevalence of lattice-based schemes, hybrid strategies, and integrations with blockchain technology, zero-knowledge proofs, federated learning, homomorphic encryption, AI, and Zero Trust architectures. Notably, key gaps remain in side-channel evaluation, migration pathways, deployment costs, and real-world validation—issues that are particularly critical given the long lifecycles of IoT devices and the ongoing threat of “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks.
The emergence of quantum computing threatens classical cryptographic systems, including RSA and ECC, potentially compromising the security of pervasive Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. Resourceconstrained IoT devices—such as sensors, embedded controllers, and microcontrollers—face significant challenges in adopting post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) protocols due to computational, memory, and energy limitations. This paper proposes AQ-PQC, an adaptive lightweight hybrid key exchange protocol combining Kyber lattice-based KEM and lightweight elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), specifically designed for constrained devices. AQ-PQC introduces a dynamic parameter tuning algorithm that adjusts key sizes, handshake rounds, and compression ratios based on real-time device state and network conditions. Formal security analysis under the IND-CCA model demonstrates quantum-resistance and forward secrecy. Extensive hardware implementation on Raspberry Pi 4 and ESP32 devices reveals a significant reduction in handshake latency, energy consumption, and memory footprint compared to conventional PQC protocols. The proposed framework provides a practical, reproducible, and secure methodology for post-quantum IoT communications, supporting heterogeneous and resource-limited networks.
Abstract The possible risk of Quantum attacks on the communication security of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT) emphasizes the necessity for proactive actions. The ongoing efforts of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to standardize quantum-resistant algorithms play a vital role in integrating security measures. Our research delves into the practical implications of migrating to Post-Quantum (PQ) algorithms in authentication schemes. We propose a novel Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) based device authentication mechanism with the adoption of PQ algorithms to perform sensitive interactions in real-time. Moreover, we focus on resource-constrained implementation and performance analysis of quantum algorithms for achieving crypto agility. The results provide insight into the real-world use of NIST PQ algorithms and highlight the temporal complexities of key pair generation, encryption and decryption processes with the integration of PUF based device authentication measures. We have identified that in our proposed PQ-PUF based authentication scheme, DILITHIUM5 with SHA3-512 has performed significantly better than RSA1024 with SHA2-256 during the stages of central registration and verification. The results also shed light on the sizes of plaintext, ciphertext, and public and private keys, which will be important factors in resource-constrained implementations.