Quantum Encryption Resilience Score (QERS) : A System-Level Evaluation Framework for Post-Quantum Cryptography across Computer Systems, IoT-IIoT, Network and Internet Architecture
Public-key cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) may become vulnerable once large-scale quantum computersand quantum chips become practical for real-world infrastructure and commercial deployment. To address this risk, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)introduces cryptographic methods designed to resist quantum-based attacks.However, these mechanisms often require more processing power, bandwidth,and energy, which creates challenges for constrained IoT and Industrial IoT(IIoT) devices.This thesis introduces the Quantum Encryption Resilience Score (QERS), asystem-level evaluation framework designed to quantify the operational impactof post-quantum cryptographic deployment across embedded systems and networked environments. Instead of concentrating only on cryptographic accuracy,QERS integrates multiple performance dimensions, including latency, CPUutilization, energy consumption, signal strength (RSSI), and cryptographicoverhead into a unified and normalized score. A Design Science Research methodology is employed to design, implement, and evaluate the QERS frameworkusing four heterogeneous ESP-based microcontroller platforms. Experimentalevaluation is conducted using HTTP and HTTPS communication over Wi-Fi,incorporating post-quantum cryptographic configurations based on Kyber andML-DSA.The results demonstrate that post-quantum cryptographic mechanisms introduce measurable latency amplification and variability across devices, with cleardifferences in performance and stability depending on hardware capability.QERS enables systematic, cross device comparison of these effects, revealingcritical trade-offs between cryptographic strength and operational performance.The findings confirm that latency is the dominant factor influencing systemresilience, while CPU and energy contribute secondary effects. By integratingcryptographic, system, and network-level metrics into a single evaluative construct, this work provides a structured and reproducible approach for assessingresilience in post-quantum secure embedded and IoT infrastructures.
Public-key cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) may become vulnerable once large-scale quantum computersand quantum chips become practical for real-world infrastructure and commercial deployment. To address this risk, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)introduces cryptographic methods designed to resist quantum-based attacks.However, these mechanisms often require more processing power, bandwidth,and energy, which creates challenges for constrained IoT and Industrial IoT(IIoT) devices.This thesis introduces the Quantum Encryption Resilience Score (QERS), asystem-level evaluation framework designed to quantify the operational impactof post-quantum cryptographic deployment across embedded systems and networked environments. Instead of concentrating only on cryptographic accuracy,QERS integrates multiple performance dimensions, including latency, CPUutilization, energy consumption, signal strength (RSSI), and cryptographicoverhead into a unified and normalized score. A Design Science Research methodology is employed to design, implement, and evaluate the QERS frameworkusing four heterogeneous ESP-based microcontroller platforms. Experimentalevaluation is conducted using HTTP and HTTPS communication over Wi-Fi,incorporating post-quantum cryptographic configurations based on Kyber andML-DSA.The results demonstrate that post-quantum cryptographic mechanisms introduce measurable latency amplification and variability across devices, with cleardifferences in performance and stability depending on hardware capability.QERS enables systematic, cross device comparison of these effects, revealingcritical trade-offs between cryptographic strength and operational performance.The findings confirm that latency is the dominant factor influencing systemresilience, while CPU and energy contribute secondary effects. By integratingcryptographic, system, and network-level metrics into a single evaluative construct, this work provides a structured and reproducible approach for assessingresilience in post-quantum secure embedded and IoT infrastructures.
The transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) presents significant challenges for modern computing environments due to increased computational overhead, communication latency, and implementation complexity. Existing evaluation methods typically focus on isolated cryptographic performance metrics and do not provide a unified framework for assessing the overall resilience of PQC deployments across heterogeneous systems. This paper introduces the Quantum Encryption Resilience Score (QERS), a novel system-level evaluation framework designed to quantify the resilience of post-quantum cryptographic implementations by integrating computational, network, and operational performance metrics into a single composite score. QERS provides a standardized methodology for comparing PQC algorithms across diverse deployment scenarios. In this study, the framework is experimentally evaluated using a heterogeneous ESP32-based embedded and IoT testbed with gateway-assisted post-quantum cryptographic processing. The proposed framework is validated through experimental implementations of the NIST-standardized ML-KEM key encapsulation mechanism and the ML-DSA digital signature algorithm under multiple communication protocols and heterogeneous hardware configurations. Experimental results demonstrate that QERS effectively distinguishes the trade-offs between security, computational efficiency, resource utilization, and communication performance, providing a practical decision-support framework for selecting appropriate PQC implementations. The proposed framework contributes a reproducible and extensible methodology for the system-level evaluation of post-quantum cryptography and establishes a foundation for future research into standardized resilience and trust assessment of quantum-resistant systems.
Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) introduces significant computational and communication overhead, which poses challenges for resource-constrained computer systems, Internet of Things (IoT), and Industrial IoT (IIoT) devices. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of the Quantum Encryption Resilience Score (QERS) applied to MQTT, HTTP, and HTTPS communication protocols operating under PQC. Using an ESP32-C6 client and an ARM-based Raspberry Pi CM4 server, latency, CPU utilization, RSSI, energy consumption, key size, and TLS handshake overhead are measured under realistic operating conditions. QERS integrates these heterogeneous metrics into normalized Basic, Tuned, and Fusion scores, enabling systematic comparison of protocol efficiency and security resilience. Experimental results show that MQTT provides the highest efficiency under PQC constraints, while HTTPS achieves the highest security-weighted resilience at the cost of increased latency and resource consumption. The proposed framework supports informed protocol selection and migration planning for PQC-enabled IoT and IIoT deployments.
Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is becoming essential for securing Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT) systems against quantum-enabled adversaries. However, existing evaluation approaches primarily focus on isolated performance metrics, offering limited support for holistic security and deployment decisions. This paper introduces QERS (Quantum Encryption Resilience Score), a universal measurement framework that integrates cryptographic performance, system constraints, and multi-criteria decision analysis to assess PQC readiness in computer, IoT, and IIoT environments. QERS combines normalized metrics, weighted aggregation, and machine learning-assisted analysis to produce interpretable resilience scores across heterogeneous devices and communication protocols. Experimental results demonstrate how the framework enables comparative evaluation of post-quantum schemes under realistic resource constraints, supporting informed security design and migration planning. This work is presented as a preprint, with extended statistical validation planned as part of ongoing graduate research.
The rise of quantum computing threatens traditional cryptographic systems, driving the urgent adoption of PQC algorithms for securing IoT and edge computing environments. However, selecting an optimal PQC scheme remains challenging due to trade-offs between security strength, computational efficiency, and scalability in real-world deployments. While algorithms like CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, and SPHINCS+ offer quantum resilience. These suffer from processing overhead, high energy consumption, and limited adaptability, hindering their seamless integration into latency-sensitive and resource-constrained IoT networks. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive and systematic performance evaluation of these PQC algorithms within the context of IoT-based cryptographic scheduling workflows, assessing critical efficiency parameters such as encryption/decryption time, execution speed, system latency, energy efficiency, and scalability under varying processing loads and batch sizes. Our analysis reveals that CRYSTALS-Kyber consistently outperforms its counterparts, demonstrating superior computational efficiency, minimal processing delays, and lower power consumption while maintaining high-security resilience against quantum adversaries. Additionally, we propose a dynamic cryptographic scheduling approach, optimizing the balance between security levels and computational resource allocation, ensuring efficient cryptographic task management in large-scale IoT networks. This research provides a foundation for the practical deployment and standardization of PQC in next-generation cryptographic architectures, enabling the seamless transition from classical to quantum-secure cryptographic frameworks. The insights gained from this study are pivotal for advancing cryptographic scheduling models, enhancing security efficiency in real-time IoT operations, and driving the global adoption of PQC algorithms for future-proof digital security infrastructures.
The expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems has created a high demand for secure cryptographic solutions, even in a future with quantum computing capabilities. Traditional mappings, such as RSA or Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), are expected to be broken by Shor's algorithm, driving the realization of post-quantum cryptography (PQC). This work presents a simulative and prototypical framework for assessing PQC integration in IoT communication. With the liboqs library and NS-3 network simulator, along with the Python scripting language, we implement both NIST-standardized algorithms, such as Dilithium (for signatures) and Kyber (for key encapsulation), as well as the classical RSA and ECC baselines. IoT networks of 50-500 virtual nodes are simulated based on IEEE 802.15.4/6LoWPAN with RPL routing. Performance attributes, including encryption/decryption time, key length, packet delivery ratio, latency, and energy consumption, are collected and evaluated. Preliminary results indicate that PQC incurs additional handshake and key overhead, but is relatively practical, with an average overhead of15−25msper processed secure transaction. The effort provides a replicable testbed, showcasing what we consider the best and worst PQC has to offer for resource-constrained IoT. Targeted at master's students and researchers, this book provides an applied approach to investigate quantum-resilient security in IoT. It encourages future expansion to hardware-in-the-loop validation on embedded devices.
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.