The current hype of quantum computing has necessitated the need for computer security stakeholders to call for the design of security algorithms that will be quantum efficient when quantum computers finally grace our computing sphere. Recent advancements in quantum computing have made cryptographic schemes more vulnerable to quantum attacks like Shor's algorithm and Grove's algorithm. Therefore NIST call for a new set of algorithms known as Post-Quantum cryptography that would be quantum proof is imminent. Many Post quantum algorithms have been designed and tested. But only few of them made it to the round 3 (the final round). This paper reviewed these post quantum candidates. Literatures highlighting their scheme, properties, implementation and areas of security coverage was reviewed. Recommendations on future research areas in this field was itemized for this novel security paradigm as we await the final standardization of this cryptosystems. 1.0. INTRODUCTION Cryptography can be referred to as the science of information hiding. When information is on transit from point A to Point B, it can be intercepted but when intercepted, the intruder is unable to understand the information. The intended recipient is the only one that can deci pher the message using a key [1]. Post Quantum cryptography is the application of existing cryptographic algorithms or the design of new algorithms that are quantum proof [2]. The marriage of quantum theory in physics with computer science is known as quan tum computing. Instead of bits, quantum computers use qubits. Unlike traditional computers, they do not use the two-state position of 0s and 1s. Quantum computers encode data using a four-state superimposition. On data processing devices, the four states o f quantum computer qubits are represented as ions, atoms, photons, or electrons. Because of its ability to represent data in multiple states, a quantum computer will presumably be more powerful than even the most powerful supercomputer [3]. For some times now, quantum computers-machines that use quantum mechanical concepts to solve mathematical problems that are complicated or impossible for normal computers-have gotten a lot of press. If quantum computers are ever mass produced, many of the current public-key cryptosystems will be broken [4]. The security and privacy of electroni c communications on the Internet and elsewhere will be compromised as a result. This will not be funny when it eventually happens. To this effect, The objective of post-quantum cryptography
The current hype of quantum computing has necessitated the need for computer security stakeholders to call for the design of security algorithms that will be quantum efficient when quantum computers finally grace our computing sphere. Recent advancements in quantum computing have made cryptographic schemes more vulnerable to quantum attacks like Shor's algorithm and Grove's algorithm. Therefore NIST call for a new set of algorithms known as Post-Quantum cryptography that would be quantum proof is imminent. Many Post quantum algorithms have been designed and tested. But only few of them made it to the round 3 (the final round). This paper reviewed these post quantum candidates. Literatures highlighting their scheme, properties, implementation and areas of security coverage was reviewed. Recommendations on future research areas in this field was itemized for this novel security paradigm as we await the final standardization of this cryptosystems. 1.0. INTRODUCTION Cryptography can be referred to as the science of information hiding. When information is on transit from point A to Point B, it can be intercepted but when intercepted, the intruder is unable to understand the information. The intended recipient is the only one that can deci pher the message using a key [1]. Post Quantum cryptography is the application of existing cryptographic algorithms or the design of new algorithms that are quantum proof [2]. The marriage of quantum theory in physics with computer science is known as quan tum computing. Instead of bits, quantum computers use qubits. Unlike traditional computers, they do not use the two-state position of 0s and 1s. Quantum computers encode data using a four-state superimposition. On data processing devices, the four states o f quantum computer qubits are represented as ions, atoms, photons, or electrons. Because of its ability to represent data in multiple states, a quantum computer will presumably be more powerful than even the most powerful supercomputer [3]. For some times now, quantum computers-machines that use quantum mechanical concepts to solve mathematical problems that are complicated or impossible for normal computers-have gotten a lot of press. If quantum computers are ever mass produced, many of the current public-key cryptosystems will be broken [4]. The security and privacy of electroni c communications on the Internet and elsewhere will be compromised as a result. This will not be funny when it eventually happens. To this effect, The objective of post-quantum cryptography
Abstract It is viewed as revolutionary technology, offering incredible potential in terms of computing power within different scientific and industrial sectors. Quantum computers provide remarkable computing power; however, they also present significant security risks to existing public-key cryptography systems used to secure digital communication, online banking systems, government, medical applications, cloud computing systems, and IoT systems. Security of commonly used encryption schemes like RSA, DH, and ECC depends on mathematical problems that are impossible for classical computers to solve but can be easily resolved with the help of powerful enough quantum computers by using Shor’s algorithm. Furthermore, Grover’s algorithm makes exhaustive search attacks much faster, thus effectively lowering the security level of symmetric encryption schemes since it provides the speed-up for brute-force attacks. Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) turned out to be an effective and scalable method to protect digital data from attacks using quantum computing. In contrast to quantum cryptography, which requires a special quantum communication channel, PQC uses classical cryptographic algorithms that cannot be broken down by either classical or quantum computer due to certain mathematical problems. This research paper offers an extensive exploration of post-quantum cryptography through the analysis of the development of quantum computing, weaknesses of current cryptographic techniques, and mathematics behind quantum-resistant algorithms. Moreover, this paper explores the major classes of PQC techniques such as lattice-based, code-based, hash-based, multivariate, and isogeny-based cryptography and provides details about their security and application. Moreover, the report gives an overview of the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Project and analyzes recent standardizations of quantum-proof algorithms to be utilized in future digital infrastructures. Keywords: Post-Quantum Encryption, Quantum Security, Quantum-Proof Public-Key Cryptography, Lattice-Based Security Protocols, ML-KEM Key Encapsulation Mechanism, ML-DSA Digital Signature Algorithm, NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography, Contemporary Cybersecurity, Secure Communications, Cryptographic Algorithms.
Cryptography from ages have been designed and used to hide important information from people who they are not meant for. It refers to the art of concealment of information that only the person with right public key decodes or unzips the information for understanding. Due to the growing rise in quantum computers, Post quantum cryptography is now an important topic. This is not about updating or upgrading our normal cryptographic primitives but an architectural shift towards building systems that can without the sheer bruteforce of quantum computation. For one to fully understand why this shift is necessary, we need to look at it from a perceptive that reveals the current limitations of the current classical computers. The devices we use currently in our every day computation like laptops, phones, even the old desktop systems in our university labs, all operate using bits. The bit is either a zero ‘0’ or a one ‘1’ that represents a particular state of the computer like a rigid on or off switch, that means everything a classical computer does, from opening a file to running statistical analysis on data, is built from these two possible states. However, the case is different for a quantum computer. For quantum computers, they introduce a paradigm shift by utilizing the ‘Qubit’ which is a four-state superposition rather than the two-state position of the classical computer. Unlike classical bits that exist strictly as 0 or 1, a qubit can occupy a superposition of multiple states at the same time. Physically, qubits are implemented using real particles such as ions trapped in electromagnetic fields, neutral atoms, individual photons, or electrons confined inside semiconductor structures. These physical carriers are then integrated into quantum processors where they store, manipulate, and transmit quantum information. Simply put, while the classical bit is a single note, the Qubit is a symphony playing simultaneously. This four-state ability is what makes quantum computers potentially more powerful and also what makes our current classical cryptography vulnerable unless we replace them with post-quantum methods. This is why quantum-safe cryptography is essential for the safety of our computing and network infrastructure.
The rise of the new paradigm (Quantum computing) in the recent years have created a major security challenge to classical and widely used primitive cryptography schemes such as ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) and RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) Algorithm. These classical computing algorithms depend on the problems of discrete logarithm and integer factorization respectively. Recent advancements in quantum computing have made encryption schemes more vulnerable since they are weak to some quantum attacks, like Shor’s Algorithm and Grove’s Algorithm. Therefore the call for a new set of algorithms known as Post-Quantum cryptography (PQC) that would not be vulnerable to quantum attacks is imminent. NIST haven selected some candidates in the second round of Post-Quantum Cryptographic algorithms standardization project. This work’s goal is to review these algorithms under there types. A rigorous survey on each Post-Quantum Cryptography schemes and their underlying properties will be x-rayed while recommending areas for research in this new security paradigm.
Cryptography is an art of hiding the significant data or information with some other codes. It is a practice and study of securing information and communication. Thus, cryptography prevents third party intervention over the data communication. The cryptography technology transforms the data into some other form to enhance security and robustness against the attacks. The thrust of enhancing the security among data transfer has been emerged ever since the need of Artificial Intelligence field came into a market. Therefore, modern way of computing cryptographic algorithm came into practice such as AES, 3DES, RSA, Diffie-Hellman and ECC. These public-key encryption techniques now in use are based on challenging discrete logarithms for elliptic curves and complex factorization. However, those two difficult problems can be effectively solved with the help of sufficient large-scale quantum computer. The Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) aims to deal with an attacker who has a large-scale quantum computer. Therefore, it is essential to build a robust and secure cryptography algorithm against most vulnerable pre-quantum cryptography methods. That is called ‘Post Quantum Cryptography’. Therefore, the present crypto system needs to propose encryption key and signature size is very large.in addition to careful prediction of encryption/decryption time and amount of traffic over the communication wire is required. The post-quantum cryptography (PQC) article discusses different families of post-quantum cryptosystems, analyses the current status of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) post-quantum cryptography standardisation process, and looks at the difficulties faced by the PQC community.
Abstract. In the digital age, cryptography is widely used in various important systems such as financial, military and government ones, medical records etc. The life of modern people is closely connected with the cryptography. We send messages via instant messengers without even considering in which way the security of communications and data is ensured. We buy things both online and transfer money with confidence in transaction security. The level of digitization of our society is constantly increasing, and the digital data needs a reliable protection, which makes cryptography a current topic. Cryptographic systems ensure our security and the basic properties of information, such as privacy, integrity, availability. However, with the beginning of the development of quantum computers, the field of cryptography has developed in a new direction. Quantum cryptography is a science that studies the methods of communication systems protection. It is based on the idea that patterns of quantum physics (physical properties described by the laws of quantum optics, quantum electrodynamics, or quantum field theory) are inviolable. The current state of development and usage of powerful quantum computers, as well as their mathematical and software, is strictly confidential and securely protected. Only clear-cut information about quantum computers and their usage in cryptography is provided. NIST has announced an open competition to select quantum-resistant public-key cryptographic algorithms. After the third round, CRYSTALS-KYBER, CRYSTALS Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+ were proposed to be standardized. NIST has already recommended moving from the sizes of keys and algorithms that provide 80 security bits to the sizes of keys and algorithms that provide 112 or 128 security bits in order to protect against classic attacks. Post-quantum cryptography, which with its complexities still requires a more detailed study, challenge science once more. However, it is unknown when the changes will occur and when the quantum era will begin, as well as what consequences they will have. It is only possible to predict how many advantages will have quantum calculations compared to usual, and how different the new quantum models will be from classic ones.
Abstract Quantum computing exploits superposition and entanglement to process information in an exponentially large state space, enabling algorithms such as Shor’s to factor large integers efficiently and thereby undermining RSA and elliptic curve cryptography. Quantum cryptography, here encompassing post quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms and quantum key distribution (QKD), is a leading candidate for protecting data against quantum capable adversaries. PQC designs classical schemes conjectured to be secure against both quantum and classical attacks, whereas QKD uses quantum mechanics to detect eavesdropping and establish information theoretically secure keys. Existing literature and limitations. Recent surveys summarise PQC families and the standardisation process led by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and reviews outline QKD protocols and their challenges. However, most prior work either addresses narrow subtopics or does not systematically synthesise empirical evidence across technical and application domains. As a result, there is still limited integrated understanding of key issues, technologies, mathematical foun dations, algorithms, programming tools and real world deployments. Objective and contributions of this review. This study systematically analyses 61 peer reviewed journal articles published within the last five years that focus on quantum cryptography. Using Covidence to manage study identification, selection, quality assessment, data extraction and narrative synthesis, it (a) characterises current issues and challenges; (b) surveys recent technological advancements and implementations; (c) evaluates algorithmic approaches and their effectiveness; (d) examines the underlying mathematical models; (e) maps the programming languages and tools used to implement quantum schemes; and (f) synthesises evidence on practical applications and future research directions. The review integrates findings on PQC and QKD, highlights gaps in the current evidence base, and offers practitioners, scholars and policymakers guidance for developing quantum secure communication systems. Keywords Quantum cryptography, Post quantum cryptography, Quantum key distribution, Systematic literature review, Quantum secure communication