NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards

The NIST post-quantum standards — FIPS 203, 204, and 205, plus the backup algorithm HQC — exist because of an attack that hasn't happened yet but is already being prepared for. Breaking RSA or ECC encryption with Shor's algorithm would take roughly 20 million physical qubits, a thousand times more than today's best systems and probably a decade or more away. The urgency isn't about that future date, though — it's about harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks, where encrypted data gets stolen today and sits in storage until the codebreaking catches up. With a federal mandate requiring quantum-safe TLS by January 2030, every organization holding data with a multi-decade shelf life — medical records, financial histories — needs crypto-agility now, not once the threat is closer.