The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today released the long-awaited post-quantum encryption standards, designed to protect electronic information well into the future – when quantum computers are expected to break existing cryptographic algorithms.
NIST's post-quantum cryptography standardization explained
These machines are not available yet. We've been told for years that machines with this kind of super-fast processing power are just a decade away – and that was the case again today. NIST cited "experts" predicting that these features could appear within a decade.
The final standards include three post-quantum cryptographic algorithms.
One – ML-KEM [PDF] (based on CRYSTALS-Kyber) – is intended for public encryption, protecting data as it moves over public networks. The other two – ML-DSA [PDF] (originally known as CRYSTALS-Dilithium) and SLH-DSA [PDF] (originally submitted as Sphincs+) – secure digital signatures, which are used to authenticate online identity.
