A new kind of computer. A new kind of protection.
The web’s encryption was built for the computers we know. Post-quantum cryptography prepares it for a different kind of threat.
Some information needs to stay private for years.
A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could break important parts of today’s public-key cryptography. Information collected now could then be decrypted in the future. That is one reason to prepare before such computers arrive.
What does “post-quantum” mean?
Cryptography designed to resist attacks from both conventional and quantum computers. It runs on ordinary computers and can be added to the websites and browsers we already use.
Key exchange
Your browser and a website establish a shared secret to protect their conversation. A hybrid approach combines a conventional method with a post-quantum method.
Authentication
Digital signatures help your browser verify the website’s identity. Upgrading key exchange does not automatically upgrade these signatures.
The transition is already in motion.
Algorithms, policies, and deployment do not move at the same pace.
Standardized algorithms give implementers a shared foundation.
Governments and standards bodies publish roadmaps with differing algorithm recommendations, priorities, and timelines.
The study checks which approaches public HTTPS endpoints negotiate and support.
The public web, from the outside.
The researchers attempted connections to one million public HTTPS endpoints from 11 locations. The same 684,494 domains completed TLS 1.3 connections everywhere, in all three rounds, forming the stable panel.
A picture of a measured population.
A “domain” is a website name. Percentages on this site describe the samples named beside each chart. Private networks and other uses of TLS are outside this study’s scope.
What did websites actually adopt?
Explore the algorithms and how adoption changed across the three rounds.