Within the next decade, quantum computers are projected to be powerful enough to break the encryption that protects virtually everything: your bank accounts, company secrets, and personal data. This has created a new type of threat:

Harvest Now, Decrypt Later

Malicious actors are already stealing encrypted data. They can’t read it today, but they are stockpiling it, waiting for the day a quantum computer can crack it open. If your data isn’t post-quantum secure right now, it’s already potentially vulnerable.

The Clock is Ticking: The 2030 Mandate

The U.S. government has recognized this as a clear and present danger. The White House (through National Security Memorandum NSM-10) and NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) have set an aggressive timeline.

• NIST has standardized new, quantum-resistant algorithms.
• The mandate is government agencies and critical infrastructure must begin migrating to post-quantum security, with a 2030 deadline.

Locke Utilizes Post-Quantum Hybrid Encryption

Symmetric key encryption is already more or less “post-quantum secure”. This is type of encryption all password managers use, however a problem comes when you have password or secret that you want to share with others, as Locke ID and Locke Armory allow you to do. This type of sharing mechanisms use asymmetric encryption.

Other password managers use elliptic curves to share passwords to employees or family members. In Locke Armory (our business offering) and Locke ID, we use a hybrid approach that gives you the tried and true security of elliptic curves along with the powerful, quantum-resistant algorithm selected by NIST as the future standard for public-key encryption called CRYSTALS-Kyber (or just Kyber).