Integration of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms into high-level protocols

Action launched by the ECCC to incorporate ‘expected impact’ language set out in the ‘Destination – Increased Cybersecurity’ section of this work programme part.

Destination - Increased Cybersecurity

The strategic plan 2025-2027 identifies the following impact: "Increased cybersecurity and a more secure online environment by developing and using effectively EU and Member States’ capabilities in digital technologies supporting protection of data and networks aspiring to technological sovereignty in this field, while respecting privacy and other fundamental rights; this should contribute to secure services, processes and products, as well as to robust digital infrastructures capable to resist and counter cyber-attacks and hybrid threats".

Under this Work Programme, the Commission intends to conclude a contribution agreement entrusting the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) with the implementation of call topics related to Increased Cybersecurity. Please refer to "Indirectly managed action by the ECCC" in the section "Other Actions" of this Work Programme part – including the Appendix providing the call specifications for information purposes. Those specifications incorporate ‘expected impacts’ set out below.

Expected impacts:

• Support the EU’s technological capabilities by investing in cybersecurity research and innovation to further strengthen its leadership, strategic autonomy, digital sovereignty and resilience;
• Help protect its infrastructures and improve its ability to prevent, protect against, respond to, resist, mitigate, absorb, accommodate and recover from cyber and hybrid incidents, especially given the current context of geopolitical change;
• Support European competitiveness in cybersecurity and European strategic autonomy, by protecting EU products and digital supply chains, as well as critical EU services and infrastructures (both physical and digital) to ensure their robustness and continuity in the face of severe disruptions;
• Encourage the development of the European Cybersecurity Competence Community;
• Particular attention will be given to SMEs, who play a crucial role in the cybersecurity ecosystem and in overall EU digital single market competitiveness, by promoting security and privacy ‘by design’ in existing and emerging technologies.

Proposals are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

• Design and implementations of at least one high-level post-quantum cryptography protocol along with a security analysis demonstrating that no security is lost compared to the used building blocks/lower-level protocols (KEMs, signatures, AEAD,…);
• Submission of these high-level protocols integrating PQC to standardization bodies and/or submission of the specification and implementation to the respective open source projects;
• Requirements analysis highlighting roadblocks and needs for development of PQC solutions for missing building blocks for migrating high-level protocols to PQC.

The transition to post-quantum cryptography requires changing the uses of most currently deployed public-key cryptography (RSA and ECC). Research and development efforts are providing signature systems and key-exchange mechanisms that are generally accepted to withstand attacks using classical and quantum computers. Efforts are on the way to include these in core Internet protocols such as Transport Layer Security (TLS). While this is an important development, many more protocols need to be modified to be quantum-ready and to ensure backward compatibility with legacy systems. Various application areas, such as Internet of Things, cloud-based applications, and automotive, place constraints on bandwidth or processing time which may prompt different choices than those employed for TLS. Currently used high-level protocols may have components that are specific to Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) or to Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) or may require additional building blocks next to or in place of signatures and key-exchange mechanisms. While applications that provide authenticity are less urgent to migrate than those for confidentiality, those using embedded hardware such as secure elements, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) using hardware tokens and others have a very slow turnover and need to be replaced by the time large quantum computers exist, thus requiring migrating the design in the near future.

Activities should target one or multiple relevant high-level protocols and produce their post-quantum versions. Typically, this can be achieved through combining current and post-quantum solutions for backward compatibility. Atypical solutions with equivalent security are also welcome. Consortia composed by actors of different nature, such as, for example, research institutions, relevant public entities, and industry to ensure that PQC solutions meet real-world security demands and are robustly tested across various applications are also welcome.