The path to a secure future in a world with quantum computers just became a bit clearer. This week, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced the algorithms that were chosen in the third round of its competition to create a new post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standard built upon encryption algorithms that can resist the powers of quantum processors.
NIST made an announcement with several layers. At the core were the choices for the main algorithms: CRYSTALS-Kyber for establishing a key and CRYSTALS-Dilithium for digital signatures. Both share the same theoretical approach which could make it simpler to implement both concurrently. NIST also announced that the digital signatures algorithms Falcon and SPHINCS+ would be standardized. It will also continue to study several other algorithms and perhaps standardize them during the fourth round of the competition.