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.
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.
The growth of quantum computing reveals a series of significant threats to cryptographic systems known today, such as RSA, ECC, and Diffie-Hellman, which are extremely important for Internet security, but are threatened by the increase in possible quantum attacks. The area of public and private key cryptography is vast. Therefore, this article addresses post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms and the challenges of implementing them in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, given the difficulty of application due to restricted resources, such as RAM and clock speed . To this end, we will discuss the need for standardization of algorithms considering low-resource IoT devices, prioritizing RAM over ROM, meeting the needs of low-memory devices, which are lighter. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has validated four cryptographic systems that are secure against quantum attacks. We analyze the implications of these systems on the infrastructure of current networks and will compare in detail these algorithms and their respective strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs. We evaluate the feasibility of post-quantum encryption (PQC) algorithms in resource-constrained IoT devices using the ESP-WROOM-32 microcontroller. Three cryptographic schemes were implemented and compared.
The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has connected billions of devices, creating a global network that manages everything from smart homes to critical industrial infrastructure. However, this connectivity faces an existential threat: the rise of Quantum Computing. Standard encryption methods like RSA and ECC, which currently protect these devices, will be easily broken by future quantum computers using Shor's Algorithm. While the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has standardized new "Post-Quantum" algorithms (like Kyber and Dilithium), simply plugging them into small IoT devices is not easy. These new algorithms are often heavy, and IoT devices have very limited battery and processing power. This paper bridges this gap by proposing "PQ-IoT", a complete, end-to-end security framework designed specifically for the real-world constraints of IoT. Unlike previous studies that look at algorithms in isolation, we designed a unified system with three layers: (1) A robust Hybrid Cryptosystem (X25519 + Kyber-768) for secure servers, (2) A lightweight encryption module (Kyber-512) for battery-powered sensors, and (3) A fast authentication mechanism (ML-DSA-44) for gateways. We built a virtual laboratory using ARM64 emulation to test this framework. Our results show that the entire system is incredibly efficient, with encryption taking only 0.20 ms and verification taking 0.50 ms. This proves that we can secure the future of IoT without sacrificing performance.
The threat of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer contributes to an increasing interest in the field of post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Compared to existing research efforts regarding the integration of PQC into the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, industrial communication protocols have so far been neglected. Since industrial cyber-physical systems (CPS) are typically deployed for decades, protection against such long-term threats is needed. In this work, we propose two novel solutions for the integration of post-quantum (PQ) primitives (digital signatures and key establishment) into the industrial protocol Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA): a hybrid solution combining conventional cryptography with PQC and a solution solely based on PQC. Both approaches provide mutual authentication between client and server and are realized with certificates fully compliant to the X.509 standard. We implement the two solutions and measure and evaluate their performance across three different security levels. All selected algorithms (Kyber, Dilithium, and Falcon) are candidates for standardization by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We show that Falcon is a suitable option – especially – when using floating-point hardware provided by our ARM-based evaluation platform. Our proposed hybrid solution provides PQ security for early adopters but comes with additional performance and communication requirements. Our solution solely based on PQC shows superior performance across all evaluated security levels in terms of handshake duration compared to conventional OPC UA but comes at the cost of increased handshake sizes. In addition to our performance evaluation, we provide a proof of security in the symbolic model for our two PQC-based variants of OPC UA. For this proof, we use the cryptographic protocol verifier ProVerif and formally verify confidentiality and authentication properties of our quantum-resistant variants.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a growing area of technology and has been identified as a key tool for enhancing industries' operation and performance. As IoT deployment rises worldwide, so do the threats; hence, security, especially authen-tication and integrity, is a critical consideration. One significant future threat is quantum attacks, which can only be defeated using Post-Quantum (PQ) cryptosystems. New Digital Signature (DS) standards for PQ security have been selected by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). However, IoT comes with its own technical challenges from the constrained resources allocated to sensors and other similar devices. As a consequence, the use and suitability of these PQ schemes for IoT remains an open research area. In this paper, we identify an IoT architecture built from three distinct layers represented by a server, a gateway and an IoT device, respectively. We first test PQ DS scheme standards and compare them with current standards in order to assess their practicality for use in this architecture to provide authentication and integrity. Then, we select the most suitable PQ scheme at each layer according to the features of the corresponding device (server, gateway, IoT device) and the security property (authentication, integrity). We finally carry out experiments on our selection and provide an architectural model for making IoT communication and interaction PQ secure.
As quantum computing technology advances rapidly, conventional cryptographic systems face imminent threats that could compromise the security of billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices worldwide. This research presents a comprehensive performance analysis of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms on IoT devices under real-world web-based cyber attacks. Utilizing the CIC IoT-IDAD 2024 dataset containing 217 features across 105 IoT device types and six web-based attack categories, we employ Dask distributed computing framework to simulate 11,200 unique scenarios testing four NIST-standardized PQC algorithms—CRYSTALS-Kyber-512, CRYSTALS-Dilithium-2, Falcon-512, and SPHINCS+-sha256-128s—across four IoT device power categories. Our novel hybrid stress factor extraction methodology combines flow-based (60%) and packet-based (40%) analysis with crypto-specific feature weighting to quantify attack impact on cryptographic operations. Results demonstrate that web-based attacks degrade PQC performance by 8-15%, with command injection attacks causing the highest impact (23% execution time increase on resource-constrained devices). Statistical validation using Wilcoxon signed-rank and Friedman tests reveals that while cyber attacks produce small but significant performance degradation (Cohen’s d = 0.19-0.27), algorithm selection creates substantially larger performance differences across device-attack scenarios (Kendall’s W = 0.12-0.76). CRYSTALS-Kyber demonstrates exceptional scalability with 96.7% feasibility on high-power devices and 71.8% on ultra-low-power devices. This research provides actionable deployment guidelines and establishes the critical importance of attack-aware resource provisioning (15-25% overhead) for quantum-resilient IoT security implementations.
The advent of quantum computing has precipitated an estimated attack resistant cryptography system necessitating quantum attacks. The classical asymmetric algorithms, i.e., RSA and ECC are susceptible to Shor algorithm and a transition should be made to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) anymore. The novelty of this work lies in providing a unified comparative framework that analyzes PQC families through security assumptions, concrete key/ciphertext sizes, and implementation complexity an aspect not addressed collectively in prior surveys. This survey gives a general picture of the status of the design process and general evaluation of PQC accounting its application within the paradigm of the diversified networks including the IoT and 5G/6G and in the cyber-physical environment. Furthermore, this review uniquely synthesizes practical hybrid‑deployment strategies, including protocol layering, coexistence models, and backward‑compatibility mechanisms, offering actionable guidance for real‑world migration. Additionally, the manuscript contributes a prioritized list of open problems across IoT, 5G/6G, blockchain, and cyber‑physical systems, highlighting domains facing the most urgent quantum‑resilience challenges. In this paper, the authors will evaluate the most popular PQC schemes, including schemes based on lattice, code, hash, and isogeny, depending on their performance, scalability, and interoperability (with reference to the recent research). It also examines the problems of integration as implemented with respect to the computational overhead, latency and adoption of hybrid with classical cryptography. This is expounded more to the standardization of PQC by NISTs and with a focus on such algorithms as CRYSTALS-Kyber and Dilithium. The findings suggest that, hybrid PQC protocols are able to control quantum resistance and actual performance in numerous infrastructures in computing systems.