World's first post-quantum cryptography standards developed by IBM algorithms

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) releases new algorithms created by IBM in partnership with industry partners to secure data against future quantum attacks as these machines evolve quickly.

The first three post-quantum cryptography standards in the world were released today by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Two of the algorithms created by IBM are included in these standards.

The standards consist of three post-quantum cryptographic algorithms. Two of these algorithms, ML-KEM and ML-DSA, were created by IBM researchers in collaboration with others. ML-KEM was previously called CRYSTALS-Kyber, and ML-DSA was previously known as CRYSTALS-Dilithium. The third algorithm, SLH-DSA, was co-developed and previously submitted as SPHINCS+. One of the researchers who worked on this algorithm joined IBM. In addition to these three, IBM's fourth algorithm, FN-DSA (previously known as FALCON), will soon become a standard.

The official release of these methods is a significant step forward in safeguarding the world's encrypted data from cyberattacks that might be attempted with the special capabilities of quantum computers, which are quickly becoming relevant to cryptography. At this time, the processing capacity possessed by quantum computers will be sufficient to breach the encryption standards that underpin the majority of the world's data and infrastructure at the moment.

The anticipated and achieved software and hardware benchmarks on IBM's Quantum Development Roadmap demonstrate how quickly quantum computing—a completely new discipline of computing—is evolving into large-scale, useful systems. For example, IBM plans to ship the first error-corrected quantum system by 2029. This device is expected to perform hundreds of millions of quantum operations to deliver accurate solutions to significant and difficult issues that are now beyond the reach of traditional computers.

According to IBM's roadmap, this system will be expanded to perform up to one billion quantum operations by 2033. As it moves closer to these objectives, IBM has already provided professionals in the disciplines of healthcare and life sciences, finance, materials science, logistics, and other areas with utility-scale systems that will enable them to start utilizing and scaling the most urgent problems they face to quantum computers as they evolve.