PRESS RELEASE
SAN FRANCISCO, February 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Linux Foundation is excited to announce the launch of Alliance for Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQCA), an open and collaborative initiative to advance the advancement and adoption of post-quantum cryptography. The PQCA brings together industry leaders, researchers and developers to address the cryptographic security challenges posed by quantum computing, through producing high-assurance software implementations of standardized algorithms, while supporting the continued development and standardization of new algorithms post- quantum.
The PQCA aims to be the central foundation for open source organizations and projects seeking production-ready libraries and packages, to support their alignment with U.S. National Security Agency Cybersecurity Advisory regarding the Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0. The PQCA will strive to enable crypto agility across the ecosystem for the timescales described therein.
With rapid advances in quantum computing, the need for robust cryptographic solutions that can resist attacks from future cryptographically relevant quantum computers has become paramount. With the support of the founding members Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Google, IBM, IntellectEU, Keyfactor, Kudelski IoT, NVIDIA, QuSecure, SandboxAQ and University of Waterloo, PQCA will support progress in protecting sensitive data and communications in the post-quantum era.
The PQCA will engage in various technical projects to support its objectives, including the development of software for the evaluation, prototyping and implementation of new post-quantum algorithms. By providing these software implementations, the foundation seeks to facilitate the practical adoption of post-quantum cryptography across several industries.
PQCA’s work builds on the foundations laid by many of the founding members over the past decade as they prepared for the transition to post-quantum cryptography. Several PQCA members have played an important role in post-quantum cryptography standardization to date, including as co-authors of the first four algorithms selected in the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Project (CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium, Falcon and SPHINX+).
One of PQCA’s launch projects is the Open Quantum Safe project, founded at the University of Waterloo in 2014 and is one of the world’s leading open source software projects dedicated to post-quantum cryptography. The PQCA will also host the new PQ Code Package Project, which will create production-ready high-assurance software implementations of future post-quantum cryptography standards, starting with the ML-KEM algorithm.
The PQCA invites organizations and individuals to get involved and participate. To participate in the Alliance, collaborate with the technical community, and learn more about its mission and initiatives, visit PQCA website OR GitHub.
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About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading center for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, OpenSSF OpenChain, and others. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, visit linuxfoundation.org. The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of The Linux Foundation’s trademarks, please see our Trademark Usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.