Atsign Updates Core SDKs with NIST-Approved Post-Quantum Security

Insider Brief

• Atsign has integrated NIST-approved post-quantum cryptography into its core SDKs to help developers protect applications and data flows against quantum threats.
• The update is designed to support new applications, existing application modernization, and legacy systems that cannot be modified through Atsign’s NoPorts service.
• Atsign says the integration provides a path to post-quantum protection without requiring a full application rewrite, with its development work publicly available through GitHub.

Press release – Atsign today announced the integration of NIST-approved, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) across its core SDKs. The integration gives developers and enterprise teams a zero-code-rewrite path to protecting sensitive data flows against emerging quantum threats.

Breaking the key elements of current cryptographic techniques, such as digital signatures, digital identity and key exchange, is beyond the reach of today’s computers. But quantum computers sufficiently powerful to break these asymmetric algorithms are widely expected to emerge by the early 2030s, turning today’s impractical attack into a viable attack in just a few years.

But, as numerous governments and cybersecurity agencies have already warned, the prospect of a quantum computing future poses a real threat now due to “harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) attacks. HNDL describes the capture and storage now of secrets or data that need to remain secret, or will still have value, well beyond the date by which quantum computing will be able to decrypt them. Bad actors are stealing and storing encrypted such secrets and data now, intending to decrypt them just as soon as sufficient quantum computing power becomes available.