The growing dependence on the Internet of Things (IoT) across different sectors requires stringent security solutions to ensure data confidentiality and integrity. Existing cryptographic solutions are not capable of achieving lightweight performance and resilience against upcoming cyberattacks, especially with the use of quantum computing. This article presents a hybrid cryptographic framework that combines Kyber-512, a post-quantum key encapsulation method, with ASCON, a lightweight authenticated encryption method, to improve IoT security. The proposed method includes key generation, encryption, secure data transmission, decryption with minimal computational load, and the ability to exhibit good security attributes. Performance analysis through extensive experimentation reveals that the proposed framework is efficient in terms of encryption time (43 ms), has minimal memory usage (2.56 KB), and provides optimal CPU usage (21.62%) and power savings (20.76 W), while ensuring high ciphertext entropy (7.90). The experimental results further indicate that the lightweight nature of ASCON allows for rapid encryption and decryption with little effect on system performance. The incorporation of Kyber-512 offers post-quantum security, reducing the threat of quantum-based attacks while being practically usable for devices with resource constraints. The proposed hybrid method meets security and efficiency requirements and is highly appropriate for use in IoT networks and similar embedded systems where computational resources and power savings are important considerations. This research highlights the importance of combining post-quantum cryptography with lightweight ciphers to strengthen the security posture in future-connected systems.
The growing dependence on the Internet of Things (IoT) across different sectors requires stringent security solutions to ensure data confidentiality and integrity. Existing cryptographic solutions are not capable of achieving lightweight performance and resilience against upcoming cyberattacks, especially with the use of quantum computing. This article presents a hybrid cryptographic framework that combines Kyber-512, a post-quantum key encapsulation method, with ASCON, a lightweight authenticated encryption method, to improve IoT security. The proposed method includes key generation, encryption, secure data transmission, decryption with minimal computational load, and the ability to exhibit good security attributes. Performance analysis through extensive experimentation reveals that the proposed framework is efficient in terms of encryption time (43 ms), has minimal memory usage (2.56 KB), and provides optimal CPU usage (21.62%) and power savings (20.76 W), while ensuring high ciphertext entropy (7.90). The experimental results further indicate that the lightweight nature of ASCON allows for rapid encryption and decryption with little effect on system performance. The incorporation of Kyber-512 offers post-quantum security, reducing the threat of quantum-based attacks while being practically usable for devices with resource constraints. The proposed hybrid method meets security and efficiency requirements and is highly appropriate for use in IoT networks and similar embedded systems where computational resources and power savings are important considerations. This research highlights the importance of combining post-quantum cryptography with lightweight ciphers to strengthen the security posture in future-connected systems.
Quantum computing is also posing a serious challenge to the classical cryptographic algorithms like RSA and ECC as they have vulnerability to quantum algorithms such as Shor and Grover. This is a serious problem to Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing systems, where billions of devices work with strict resource constraints in processing power, memory and energy. To resolve this, we are introducing a minimal postquantum cryptography model to be used in edge platforms with constraints on their resources. This framework combines fierce encapsulation of key (Kyber512) on a lattice with traditional ECDH in a hybrid system of key establishment, along with the Ascon AEAD encryption algorithm to provide effective data hiding and integrity provision. Furthermore, rekeying and forward secrecy on a lightweight basis is possible to reconfigure a layer with negligible overhead on a secure transmission with forward secrecy. The experimental data with ARM Cortex-M and RISC-V architectures and 128-bit post-quantum security has shown that the proposed system can reduce the latency by up to 30 percent and the energy usage by up to 35 percent and considerably better throughput than PQC-only implementations. These findings validate the fact that hybrid PQC solutions have the potential to provide high-resistance quantum with minimal overhead and thus are best suited to IoT and edge applications. The paper offers a viable and extensible security design in conformance with the NIST PQC and IETF migration policies, which can support secure communication in the post-quantum era.
The rapid expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and the looming risk of quantum computing necessitate a transition from traditional to quantum-resistant cryptographic standards. In this research article, we propose a novel hybrid crypto framework featuring an Adaptive Security Controller (ASC) that dynamically integrates a lightweight symmetric cipher, ChaCha20, with Kyber512 and a post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) scheme Dilithium to secure resource-constrained IoT environments. Unlike existing models that depend either on PQC or lightweight methods, our proposed framework dynamically switches encryption modes based on device constraints, energy availability, and trust levels—delivering a balance among strong security and manageable computational costs. To evaluate our framework, we performed multiple simulations with the Contiki-NG/COOJA platform over several IoT setups. Experimental results show that the proposed approach increase encryption speed by 37% as compared to existing RSA-based methods while keeping energy consumption within 12% of ChaCha20 configurations. In addition, the memory footprint remains under 25 KB RAM and 50 KB ROM, assure compatibility with microcontroller-class devices. By integrating quantum-resistant cryptography with lightweight performance enhancements and policy-based adaptability, our proposed framework guarantee better confidentiality, authenticity, and forward secrecy for next-generation IoT networks.
The emergence of quantum computing seriously threatens the security of legacy cryptographic protocols in consumer electronics devices based on the Internet of Things (IoT). These are essential components of mission-critical infrastructures, such as industrial control systems, smart grids, and healthcare. In particular, this work examines how to strengthen the resistance of the IoT to classical and quantum-based cyberattacks by combining deep learning methods with post-quantum cryptography (PQC). To protect key exchange, encryption, and authentication processes in IoT-consumer devices, we will continue to use quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms, including lattice-based, hash-based, and code-based cryptography. To provide real-time anomaly detection and response capabilities, we suggest a hybrid security framework combining PQC with deep learning-based intrusion detection systems. Our methodology ensures secure communications and data exchanges linked to quantum attacks in the future within IoT systems while leveraging continuous learning over time to allow Intrusion Detection System (IDS) models to adapt to new attack vectors. We suggest optimized algorithms for PQC solutions that are lightweight and suitable for deployment in edge computing nodes and Internet of Things devices, considering the resource-constrained IoT situations where PQC implementation would be difficult. Through comparative studies and simulations, we demonstrate how our integrated PQC-deep learning framework offers an improved IoT security solution that could safeguard vital systems in a world powered by quantum technology. The results shows the key generation time which is 12.5ms, encryption/decryption time 25.3ms, latency 18.7ms, throughput 5000 operations/sec and energy consumption 2.4mJ.
The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has revolutionized digital communication, yet it simultaneously poses unprecedented security challenges due to constrained device capabilities and increasing cyber threats. Conventional cryptographic techniques, while currently effective, are vulnerable to emerging quantum computing technologies that threaten to render classical encryption obsolete. This paper explores the integration of quantum-safe cryptographic techniques within IoT networks to ensure long-term confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. It examines post-quantum cryptographic primitives, including lattice-based, hash-based, multivariate, and code-based schemes, and evaluates their suitability for resource-constrained IoT environments. The study focuses on lightweight implementation strategies, balancing computational efficiency with robust security requirements. Simulation analyses demonstrate that properly optimized quantum safe protocols can provide resilient encryption, key exchange, and digital signature functionalities without overwhelming device resources. Furthermore, the integration of these techniques with IoT communication standards and secure network protocols ensures end-to-end protection across heterogeneous networks. Challenges such as latency, energy consumption, and scalability are addressed, highlighting the necessity of tailored cryptographic solutions for diverse IoT applications. The findings confirm that quantum safe cryptography is essential for future-proofing IoT networks, offering sustainable security measures that remain resilient against both classical and quantum adversaries, thereby supporting the continued expansion of secure and intelligent interconnected systems.
The rapid expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems has increased the need for communication mechanisms that can remain secure against emerging computational threats. Conventional asymmetric cryptographic schemes, including RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), are vulnerable to advances in quantum computing due to the ability of Shor's algorithm to undermine their underlying mathematical assumptions. To address these challenges, this paper presents PQ-IoT SecureCom, a quantum-resistant communication framework built using NIST-standardized post-quantum cryptographic primitives. The proposed framework employs ML-KEM (derived from Kyber) for secure key encapsulation and ML-DSA (derived from Dilithium) for digital authentication, combined with AESGCM to ensure data confidentiality and integrity. Additional security mechanisms, including PQC-based device certification, periodic session key updates, and nonce-based timestamp validation, are incorporated to mitigate replay and impersonation attacks. The framework also supports a hybrid operational mode that enables performance comparison between classical and postquantum cryptographic schemes. System behavior is monitored using a real-time dashboard that records cryptographic overhead, communication metrics, and detected security events. Experimental evaluation shows that ML-KEM and ML-DSA significantly enhance security while introducing computational overhead that remains acceptable for contemporary IoT devices. Through automated attack simulations and detailed event logging, PQ-IoT SecureCom demonstrates the practical feasibility of deploying scalable post-quantum security in IoT communication systems.
With the growing Internet of Things (IoT), many applications like traffic management, smart cities, environment monitoring, industrial automation and healthcare have been revolutionized. As the number of resourcelimited IoT devices grows and connects with each other, security issues have become more intricate and severe, such as unauthorized access, data tampering, replay attacks, and the rise in threat from quantum computing to traditional cryptographic methods. To solve those problems, this paper proposes Quantum Shield-IoT, which is a quantum-resilient hybrid security framework that combines the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol of BB84 with ASCON lightweight authenticated encryption, blockchain security, and cloud computing to ensure secure end-to-end data transmission in IoT. The BB84 protocol works both to generate quantum secure cryptographic keys, and to identify eavesdropping via Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) analysis. The generated keys are used by ASCON-128 to ensure efficient data confidentiality, integrity and authentication with low computation load, which makes it suitable for resourceconstrained IoT devices. Encrypted data are securely stored in the cloud while the data integrity and traceability of the SHA-256 hash values are ensured by being stored on the blockchain, making them irretrievable. Encrypted data are stored securely in the cloud, while the data integrity and traceability of the hash value ensure irretrievable storage through the blockchain. The proposed framework was implemented using IBM Quantum Qiskit, ASCON-128, blockchain platforms and cloud storage. Experimental results show that quantum bit error rate (QBER) varies from 2.1% to 3.5% for typical communication and 24.8% for eavesdropping attempts, proving reliable QKD. ASCON encryption range was between 8.2 ms and 69.5 ms, and blockchain verification was less than 25 ms for 1,000 transactions with more than 99% of the integrity accuracy. Moreover, the framework achieved an attack detection rate higher than 97.9% in several cyberattacks and hence provided a scalable, light-weight and quantum resistant security solution for next generation IoT ecosystems.