The rapidly increasing number of Internet of Things devices and the forthcoming arrival of quantum computing is imposing the transition to new quantum-resistant cryptography in constrained-resources devices. However, the energy impact of post-quantum cryptography on wireless sensor networks, critical to battery life and network up-time, remains largely unquantified. In this paper, this gap is addressed by evaluating the energy impact of standardized post-quantum cryptography CRYSTALS-Kyber and FALCON on extreme edge Internet of Things devices. In this work a new energy aware multilevel security framework over Contiki-NG has been developed and tested on extreme edge nodes based on EFR32MG12 Cortex-M4 System-on-Chip. This work provides energy consumption data measured in four different operational scenarios during one-hour experiments, allowing to estimate the impact on battery lifetime for four different battery capacities: 125, 225, 500 and 1000 mAh. The results presented in this work demonstrate that while the highest security level offers post-quantum confidentiality and integrity incurs in measurable costs, leading to a maximum lifetime reduction lower than 1% in the experiments with FALCON being identified as the dominant contributor to energy consumption related to post-quantum cryptography. At intermediate security levels, only post-quantum confidentiality using CRYSTALS-Kyber can be achieved at considerably lower energy costs. This study provides quantitative evidence supporting the feasibility of deploying post-quantum cryptography in resource-constrained wireless sensor networks through a novel energy-aware approach, offering crucial data for designing secure and sustainable quantum-resistant Internet of Things systems.
The rapidly increasing number of Internet of Things devices and the forthcoming arrival of quantum computing is imposing the transition to new quantum-resistant cryptography in constrained-resources devices. However, the energy impact of post-quantum cryptography on wireless sensor networks, critical to battery life and network up-time, remains largely unquantified. In this paper, this gap is addressed by evaluating the energy impact of standardized post-quantum cryptography CRYSTALS-Kyber and FALCON on extreme edge Internet of Things devices. In this work a new energy aware multilevel security framework over Contiki-NG has been developed and tested on extreme edge nodes based on EFR32MG12 Cortex-M4 System-on-Chip. This work provides energy consumption data measured in four different operational scenarios during one-hour experiments, allowing to estimate the impact on battery lifetime for four different battery capacities: 125, 225, 500 and 1000 mAh. The results presented in this work demonstrate that while the highest security level offers post-quantum confidentiality and integrity incurs in measurable costs, leading to a maximum lifetime reduction lower than 1% in the experiments with FALCON being identified as the dominant contributor to energy consumption related to post-quantum cryptography. At intermediate security levels, only post-quantum confidentiality using CRYSTALS-Kyber can be achieved at considerably lower energy costs. This study provides quantitative evidence supporting the feasibility of deploying post-quantum cryptography in resource-constrained wireless sensor networks through a novel energy-aware approach, offering crucial data for designing secure and sustainable quantum-resistant Internet of Things systems.
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 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/.
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/.
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 proliferation of the Internet of Things and the expansion of the Computing Continuum toward the extreme edge have introduced unprecedented challenges in balancing computational performance, communication reliability, and energy autonomy. While current security standards rely on classical asymmetric cryptography, the emergence of practical quantum advantage poses a critical threat to the long-term integrity of these infrastructures. This doctoral thesis addresses the urgent need for quantum-resistant security in resource-constrained environments by characterizing the energy impact of Post-Quantum Cryptography on battery-powered Internet of Things nodes. A significant research gap was identified regarding the precise quantification of energy consumption when deploying National Institute of Standards and Technology-standardized Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithms at the extreme edge. To bridge this gap, this research proposes a dynamic context-aware, multi-level security framework designed for ARM Cortex-M4-based devices. The architecture integrates a custom-tailored communication protocol and a modular security engine that pivots between different post-quantum cryptographic schemes, specifically utilizing Advanced Encryption Standard-256 for symmetric encryption, Kyber Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism for key encapsulation, and Falcon Fast Fourier Lattice-based Compact Signatures over NIST-curves for digital signatures. The methodology involved an extensive experimental campaign consisting of multiple experiments of continuous energy characterization. By analyzing 160 unique samples across four operational scenarios with transmission intervals ranging from 60 to 5 seconds and four security tiers, the research quantifies the trade-offs between cryptographic security and battery life. The results provide an empirical baseline for the energy cost of quantum resilience, demonstrating the feasibility of Post-Quantum Cryptography at the extreme edge through optimized key rotation and Energy-Aware Security strategies. Finally, this Thesis was developed under an Industrial Doctorate collaboration with the company Métodos y Tecnología de Sistemas y Procesos (MTP) within the SecBluRed project. Due to the proprietary nature of this collaboration and the associated Non-Disclosure Agreements, the source code generated during this research is not publicly available. The findings not only contribute to the academic state-of-the-art but also offer actionable design guidelines for the industry, ensuring that future Industrial Internet of Things and smart city infrastructures remain secure against quantum threats without compromising their operational longevity. This work has been recognized with the Industrial Mention, highlighting its strategic value for the transfer of high-assurance cybersecurity knowledge to the private sector. RESUMEN La proliferación del Internet de las Cosas (Internet of Things) y la expansión del Computing Continuum hacia el extreme edge han introducido desafíos sin precedentes para equilibrar el rendimiento computacional, la fiabilidad de las comunicaciones y la autonomía energética. Mientras que los estándares de seguridad actuales dependen de la criptografía asimétrica clásica, la aparición de la ventaja cuántica práctica plantea una amenaza crítica para la integridad a largo plazo de estas infraestructuras. Esta tesis doctoral aborda la necesidad urgente de seguridad resistente a ataques cuánticos en entornos de recursos limitados, caracterizando el impacto energético de la Criptografía Post-Cuántica en nodos del Internet de las Cosas alimentados por batería. Se ha identificado una brecha de investigación significativa en cuanto a la cuantificación precisa del consumo de energía al desplegar algoritmos de Criptografía Post-Cuántica estandarizados por el Instituto Nacional de Estándares y Tecnología (National Institute of Standards and Technology) en el extreme edge. Para cerrar esta brecha, esta investigación propone un marco de seguridad multinivel dinámico diseñado para dispositivos basados en ARM Cortex-M4. La arquitectura integra un protocolo de comunicación adaptado y un motor de seguridad modular que pivota entre regímenes de Advanced Encryption Standard-256 clásico y post-cuántico, utilizando específicamente Kyber (Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism) para el encapsulamiento de claves y Falcon (Fast Fourier Lattice-based Compact Signatures over NIST-curves) para firmas digitales. La metodología consistió en una extensa campaña experimental que comprende múltiples experimentos que permiten caracterizar el consumo energético de manera continua. Mediante el análisis de 160 muestras únicas en cuatro escenarios operativos con intervalos de transmisión de entre 60 y 5 segundos y cuatro niveles de seguridad, la investigación cuantifica el compromiso entre el rigor criptográfico y la vida útil de la batería. Los resultados proporcionan una base empírica para el coste energético de la resiliencia cuántica, demostrando la viabilidad de la Criptografía Post-Cuántica en el extreme edge mediante rotación de claves optimizada y estrategias de seguridad basadas en la energía (Energy-Aware Security). Finalmente, esta Tesis se ha desarrollado bajo un marco de Doctorado Industrial en colaboración con la empresa Métodos y Tecnología de Sistemas y Procesos (MTP) dentro del proyecto SecBluRed. Debido a la naturaleza propietaria de esta colaboración y a los correspondientes Acuerdos de Confidencialidad (Non-Disclosure Agreements), el código fuente generado no está disponible de forma pública. Los hallazgos no solo contribuyen al estado del arte académico, sino que también ofrecen directrices de diseño accionables para la industria, garantizando que las futuras infraestructuras del Internet de las Cosas Industrial y ciudades inteligentes permanezcan seguras frente a amenazas cuánticas sin comprometer su longevidad operativa. Este trabajo ha sido reconocido con la Mención Industrial, destacando su valor estratégico para la transferencia de conocimiento en ciberseguridad de alta garantía al sector privado.
The migration of Internet of Things (IoT) systems to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is essential to ensure long-term security against quantum enabled adversaries. However, the large computational, memory, and communication overheads of PQC algorithms pose challenges for resource-constrained IoT environments. In practice, IoT platforms span a wide range of capabilities, from battery-powered sensors to gateway devices, making a one-size-fits-all configuration impractical. This paper presents a new methodology for selecting suitable PQC schemes based on RFC 7228 device classes. We introduce the Efficiency-Adjusted Security for Post-Quantum Cryptography (EAS-PQC) metric that considers security strength, latency, energy consumption, memory footprint, communication overhead, and protocol reliability. Device-class-specific constraints and weighting profiles are incorporated to reflect the operational priorities of Class 0, Class 1, and Class 2 IoT devices. Our evaluation primarily uses performance benchmarks from the PQM4 framework, which are based on ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller profiles, and performance results from several work on similar embedded platforms. Energy consumption is estimated using a constant active power model derived from Cortex-M4 power characteristics. We evaluate multiple PQC candidates, including ML-KEM and ML-DSA, and the results show a quantitative mapping between IoT device classes and PQC schemes. Specifically, Saber-LightSaber is identified as the most suitable option for Class 0 devices, while ML-DSA-87 combined with ML-KEM-768 achieves the highest overall scores for Class 1 and Class 2 devices. Our findings improve feasibility and efficiency by up to 30–40% compared to static baseline configurations. With these findings, we recommend EAS-PQC as a useful tool for the assessment of post-quantum security in industrial IoT systems.