SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 06, 2024 -- The Linux Foundation is excited to announce the launch of the Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance (PQCA), an open and collaborative initiative to drive the advancement and adoption of post-quantum cryptography. The PQCA brings together industry leaders, researchers and developers to address cryptographic security challenges posed by quantum computing, through the production of high-assurance software implementations of standardized algorithms, while supporting the continued development and standardization of new post-quantum algorithms.

The PQCA aims to be the central foundation for organizations and open source projects seeking production-ready libraries, and packages, to support their alignment with U.S. National Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Advisory concerning the Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0. The PQCA will strive to enable cryptographic agility across the ecosystem for the timelines described therein.

With the rapid advancements in quantum computing, the need for robust cryptographic solutions that can withstand attacks from future cryptographically-relevant quantum computers has become paramount. With support from founding members Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Google, IBM, IntellectEU, Keyfactor, Kudelski IoT, NVIDIA, QuSecure, SandboxAQ, and the University of Waterloo, the PQCA will support the advancement of securing 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 evaluating, prototyping, and deploying new post-quantum algorithms. By providing these software implementations, the foundation seeks to facilitate the practical adoption of post-quantum cryptography across different industries.

The work of the PQCA builds on the foundation laid by many of the founding members over the last decade preparing for the transition to post-quantum cryptography. Several members of the PQCA have played major roles in the standardization of post-quantum cryptography 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 SPHINCS+).

One of the launch projects of the PQCA is the Open Quantum Safe project, which was founded at the University of Waterloo in 2014 and is one of the world's leading open-source software projects devoted to post-quantum cryptography. The PQCA will also host the new PQ Code Package Project, which will build high-assurance production-ready software implementations of forthcoming post-quantum cryptography standards, starting with the ML-KEM algorithm.