The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses significant threats to classical cryptographic methods, such as Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which currently secure Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud communications. Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), particularly lattice-based schemes, has emerged as a promising alternative. CRYSTALS-Kyber, standardized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as ML-KEM, has shown efficiency and practicality for constrained IoT devices. Most existing research has focused on PQC within the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. Consequently, a critical gap exists in understanding PQC’s performance in lightweight IoT protocols. These are Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), particularly under adverse network conditions. To address this gap, this paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the network resilience and performance of CRYSTALS-Kyber when integrated into these protocols operating over lossy and high-latency networks. Additional challenges include non-standardized integration, resource limitations, and side-channel vulnerabilities. This review provides a structured synthesis of current knowledge, highlights unresolved trade-offs between security and efficiency, and outlines future research directions, including protocol-level optimization, lightweight signature schemes, and resilience testing of PQC-secured IoT protocols under realistic conditions.
The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses significant threats to classical cryptographic methods, such as Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which currently secure Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud communications. Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), particularly lattice-based schemes, has emerged as a promising alternative. CRYSTALS-Kyber, standardized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as ML-KEM, has shown efficiency and practicality for constrained IoT devices. Most existing research has focused on PQC within the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. Consequently, a critical gap exists in understanding PQC’s performance in lightweight IoT protocols. These are Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), particularly under adverse network conditions. To address this gap, this paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the network resilience and performance of CRYSTALS-Kyber when integrated into these protocols operating over lossy and high-latency networks. Additional challenges include non-standardized integration, resource limitations, and side-channel vulnerabilities. This review provides a structured synthesis of current knowledge, highlights unresolved trade-offs between security and efficiency, and outlines future research directions, including protocol-level optimization, lightweight signature schemes, and resilience testing of PQC-secured IoT protocols under realistic conditions.
The emergence of quantum computing presents a critical threat to classical cryptographic schemes such as Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which underpin protocols such as TLS 1.3. This study proposes and evaluates an optimized integration of the CRYSTALS-Kyber algorithm within the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 protocol for resource-constrained IoT devices. The objective is to achieve quantum-resistant security while maintaining practical performance on embedded hardware. Using the Open Quantum Safe library and OpenSSL, the implementation is bench marked on Raspberry Pi and ARM Cortex platforms under real-world constraints. Key findings demonstrate that Kyber512 achieves a favorable balance between performance and post-quantum security, with low handshake latency, peak memory usage under 22 KB, and energy consumption as low as 0.36 mJ per handshake. A hybrid implementation combining Kyber with Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral (ECDHE) ensures backward compatibility while enabling 128-256 bit quantum-safe security. Empirical validation confirms constanttime execution, side-channel resistance (p>0.05over 100 K traces), and robust operation under packet loss. These results establish CRYSTALS-Kyber as a viable candidate for postquantum secure communication in constrained IoT environments.
This paper presents lightweight Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), identifying its importance for a shift from traditional cryptographic schemes, vulnerable to quantum threats, to efficient PQC algorithms. Lattice-based cryptography stands out owing to its small key sizes and computational efficiency, with CRYSTALS-Kyber and NTRU algorithms being substantial representatives for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. However, PQC implementation in IoT environments has various obstacles to overcome. Minimizing energy consumption, scalability, and hardware limitations remain key challenges for PQC smooth integration into these resource-constrained networks. The present review analyzes the state-of-the-art PQC, makes security and performance comparisons among leading algorithms, and evaluates optimization techniques aimed at reducing resource overheads. Algorithmic refinement, hardware acceleration, and hybrid cryptography are also discussed as methods for mitigating these challenges. The results indicate that continuous research and development efforts should be made to improve the PQC technologies, and thus achieve their practical deployment in IoT systems. Quantum threats in IoT will be, hence, prevented with the employment of secure and scalable IoT ecosystems in a post-quantum world.
The growing interconnection of critical engineering infrastructure through IoT introduces unprecedented exposure to cyber threats. Emerging quantum computing capabilities pose a transformative risk to classical cryptographic primitives such as Rivest–Shamir–Adleman and Elliptic-Curve Cryptography, which underpin secure communication and device authentication in industrial control systems, power grids, transportation networks, and healthcare infrastructure. This paper investigates quantum-resistant encryption, often termed post-quantum cryptography (PQC), as a sustainable security paradigm for IoT communication within critical systems. By analyzing lattice-based, code-based, multivariate, and hash-based schemes, the study evaluates trade-offs between computational cost, memory footprint, and latency constraints intrinsic to resource-limited IoT nodes. A hybrid architectural framework integrating the National Institute of Standards and Technology-standardized algorithms (e.g., Cryptographic Suite for Algebraic Lattices—Kyber, Dilithium) with lightweight symmetric primitives (e.g., Ascon, GIFT block cipher in Combined Feedback mode) is proposed for secure data transmission across heterogeneous IoT layers. Experimental simulations benchmark key-exchange throughput, ciphertext expansion, and resilience against quantum-adversarial models, demonstrating up to 65% reduction in handshake latency compared to baseline lattice implementations under constrained conditions. The paper concludes with policy and engineering recommendations for the adoption of quantum-resistant IoT protocols in energy, transportation, and industrial automation sectors, highlighting alignment with global PQC migration roadmaps and IEC 62443 cybersecurity standards.
The rapid deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices across critical infrastructure’s sectors such as healthcare, transportation, and smart cities brings unprecedented security challenges; particularly as quantum computing threatens the classical cryptography. This systematic review analyzes IoT security in relation to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), highlighting vulnerabilities, evolving threat, and cryptographic countermeasures. Using the PRISMA 2020 protocol, our work employed a rigorous and reproducible search strategy, where the initial Boolean query, ((“IoT” OR “Internet of Things”) AND (“Cryptography” OR “Encryption Scheme”) AND “Quantum”), was developed and effectively customized for nine reputable databases to maximize the coverage. From an initial pool of 5,151 publications dated between 2020 and February 12, 2025, a content-based screening was conducted at the title, abstract, and full-text levels. This meticulous filtering resulted in a final corpus of 161 studies deemed relevant for in-depth analysis and synthesis. Then, we categorize and analyze PQC algorithms by vulnerabilities, suitability for resource-constrained IoT environments, performance evaluation, scalability, and quantum resilience. We also identify key limitations in implementations of current cryptographic schemes, including issues in key management and authentication; and outline major challenges such as resource constraints of IoT devices, environmental noise, quantum reversible computing, security vulnerabilities, quantum hardware constraints, and complexities in integration. To counter these threats, we propose a framework of PQC countermeasures and illustrated by a hypothetical case study of PQC adoption in a real-world IoT system. Finally, we propose future research directions in lightweight PQC, hybrid frameworks, improved key management and distribution, addressing quantum distance matters, countering quantum threats, and standardization for IoT environments.
The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses a critical threat to classical cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and ECC, particularly in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, where secure communication is essential but often constrained by limited computational resources. This paper investigates the feasibility of deploying post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms on resource-constrained devices. In particular, we implement three PQC algorithms -- BIKE, CRYSTALS-Kyber, and HQC -- on a lightweight IoT platform built with Raspberry Pi devices. Leveraging the Open Quantum Safe (\texttt{liboqs}) library in conjunction with \texttt{mbedTLS}, we develop quantum-secure key exchange protocols, and evaluate their performance in terms of computational overhead, memory usage, and energy consumption for quantum secure communication. Experimental results demonstrate that the integration of PQC algorithms on constrained hardware is practical, reinforcing the urgent need for quantum-resilient cryptographic frameworks in next-generation IoT devices. The implementation of this paper is available at https://iqsec-lab.github.io/PQC-IoT/.
The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses a critical threat to classical cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and ECC, particularly in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, where secure communication is essential but often constrained by limited computational resources. This paper investigates the feasibility of deploying post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms on resource-constrained devices. In particular, we implement three PQC algorithms - BIKE, CRYSTALS-Kyber, and HQC - on a lightweight IoT platform built with Raspberry Pi devices. Leveraging the Open Quantum Safe (liboqs) library in conjunction with mbedTLS, we develop quantumsecure key exchange protocols, and evaluate their performance in terms of computational overhead, memory usage, and energy consumption for quantum secure communication. Experimental results demonstrate that the integration of PQC algorithms on constrained hardware is practical, reinforcing the urgent need for quantum-resilient cryptographic frameworks in next-generation IoT devices. The implementation of this paper is available at https://iqsec-lab.github.io/PQC-IoT/.