Post-quantum cryptography (PQC)

ANSSI’s initiatives and general stance on PQC

Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) refers to a set of traditional cryptographic algorithms including key establishment and digital signatures and intended to protect against the quantum threat in addition to providing traditional security. According to ANSSI, PQC is the most promising way to guard against the quantum threat. The post-quantum transition will take over a decade and will impact the entire cybersecurity field. The nation-wide success of PQC will be one of the main challenges of the next ten years.

In 2022, ANSSI issued a first opinion on the migration towards PQC which was updated and further developed 2023. It provides a lay of the land and formulates recommendations intended to promote hybrid key establishment or signature mechanisms combining the computations of a known pre-quantum public key algorithm with those of an additional post-quantum algorithm. This document urges entities to initiate their transition towards a hybridised post-quantum algorithm. ANSSI also issued an opinion on the PQC mechanisms selected by NIST – a U.S. standardisation organisation which, since 2016, has been hosting an international competition for the standardisation of PQC algorithms

ANSSI publications on PQC

Technical guidance

Jointly led international publications

Publications of interest to the ecosystem