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Discover Internet of Things

Systematic review on securing IoT systems with post quantum cryptography emerging threats, countermeasures, and future research needs

Ketema Adere Gemeda, Seble Hailu, Alemybrah Tseghai, Gizachew Haile, Bereket Tamirat, Wudu Bitew, Mesfin Abebe, Ararso Kemal, Semere W. Silassie, Dereje Regassa, Zelalem Gizachew, Wengelawit Alemu

Published Jan 27, 2026• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1007/s43926-025-00275-6

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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.
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 Internet of Things (IoT) has grown rapidly, transforming various aspects of daily life into intelligent systems capable of collecting and exchanging data in real time. At the same time, advances in quantum computing have given rise to powerful quantum computers capable of processing complex tasks at unprecedented speed. This disparity between the limited resources of IoT devices and the capabilities of quantum computers poses significant security challenges. Quantum computers introduce new vulnerabilities that threaten IoT systems, particularly in critical applications such as connected healthcare, industrial networks, smart infrastructure, and secure embedded systems. This study reviews the existing literature on post-quantum cryptography (PQC) applied to IoT devices. It analyzes the characteristics and security requirements of IoT environments, current security technologies, and unresolved issues. It highlights the growing threat of post-quantum attacks and the need to adapt security strategies. Finally, the study explores post-quantum code-based cryptosystems as solutions to enhance the security of resource-constrained IoT applications and ensure their resilience against future challenges.
The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has introduced significant security challenges, particularly with the looming threat posed by quantum computing to classical cryptographic algorithms. This paper explores the integration of quantum-resistant cryptographic techniques to secure IoT ecosystems against future quantum attacks. We analyze the vulnerabilities inherent in traditional cryptographic approaches and discuss the implementation feasibility of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) in resource-constrained IoT devices. The study further highlights key PQC algorithms suitable for IoT and evaluates their performance impact. A comparative analysis graph of classical versus quantum-resistant algorithms in IoT environments is presented. This work aims to provide insights and recommendations for adopting quantum-resistant solutions to future-proof IoT security.
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 Internet of Things (IoT) is involved in almost every industry, paving the way for innovative applications, including smart cities, intelligent systems, smart homes, smart agriculture, healthcare, and more. However, due to their asset value, these applications are under continuous and evolving cyberattacks. Furthermore, the advent of quantum computing presents a severe threat to traditional cryptographic methods that typically secure IoT systems, potentially rendering existing security mechanisms ineffective against quantum-enabled attacks. To tackle quantum-enabled and traditional cyberattacks, post-quantum cryptography (PQC) has emerged as a promising solution for providing future-proof security for IoT devices and networks against the quantum computing threat. PQC algorithms can resist cyberattacks from classical and quantum computers, ensuring long-term security solutions. This article explores the integration of PQC into practical IoT systems. It highlights the vulnerabilities of classical cryptographic methods and the necessity of transitioning to quantum-resistant solutions. Moreover, the implementation of PQC on IoT systems is analyzed. By proactively exploring the opportunities and challenges associated with PQC, this research lays out future directions for implementing robust, scalable, and secure IoT systems.
Abstract As the number and characteristics of smart devices change, the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) emerges. The IoT provides the connected devices with a variety of resources that enable effective communication. At this point, several security issues arise to get the sensitive information behind every communication in the IoT. To provide users with security and privacy, cryptographic schemes are adopted, the most popular being public key cryptographic systems (PKC). However, with the advent of quantum computing, the level of security that can be provided by the PKC schemes is a big question. Another important issue is that the IoT environment is resource‐constrained, which necessitates the implementation of lightweight cryptographic algorithms for better security. In response to these issues, the post‐quantum cryptographic (PQC) schemes are one of the significant developments contributing to IoT security in the post‐quantum world. This article examines the key security issues in the IoT environment and examines the effective solutions found in the literature. The problems in IoT in the quantum era are discussed and appropriate solutions by PKC schemes under limited resources in IoT are focused. As the lattice‐based cryptosystems are more effective, the importance of these schemes in the resource‐constrained IoT is highlighted. This survey also leads to feasible future directions that can support developers and researchers in this field.