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Quantum Security Defence 🏰 🔍 Search Request Access →
// CYBERSECURITY · POST-QUANTUM · ML-KEM · ML-DSA

An attack recorded today, decrypted tomorrow.

A sufficiently powerful quantum computer does not exist yet. The risk it poses already exists today, because encrypted traffic can be recorded now and decrypted later. We meet exactly that risk with hybrid post-quantum cryptography, ML-KEM and ML-DSA per FIPS 203 and 204, in addition to classical cryptography, not instead of it.

FIPS 203 / 204 HYBRID, NOT REPLACEMENT
→ Deeper technical view: Shor vs. Grover, the signature stack in detail
// The basics

What quantum computing actually means for encryption.

A classical computer essentially checks possible solutions one after another. A quantum computer uses quantum-mechanical effects to approach certain mathematical problems in a structurally different way, no advantage for most everyday tasks, a fundamental advantage for a small number of specific mathematical problems.

THE PROBLEM
Shor's Algorithm
A quantum algorithm published in 1994 that can efficiently solve the mathematical problems underlying RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography, factoring large numbers and discrete logarithms. A sufficiently large, error-corrected quantum computer would structurally break these methods, not merely slow them down.
THE STATE TODAY
No cryptographically relevant machine yet
The quantum computers that exist today are far from the scale and error correction required to break RSA or ECC. That is a statement of fact, not an all-clear, because the relevant question is not whether the machine exists today, but how long data encrypted today needs to stay secret.
Harvest Now, Decrypt Later
An attacker does not need to own the quantum computer today to attack today. Encrypted traffic intercepted and stored now can be decrypted years later, once the computing power exists. For data with a long protection period, ten years of retention, as with every receipt in this system, that is not a hypothetical risk, it is one already running.
// What we do

Hybrid post-quantum cryptography, not a swap.

We do not replace classical cryptography with post-quantum methods, we combine both. An attacker would then have to break both the classical and the new mathematical problem at the same time, not just one of the two.

The first line of defence is already quantum-resistant
The internal chain integrity of every receipt rests on HMAC-SHA256, a symmetric method with a pre-shared key, not on public-key cryptography. Shor's algorithm, which would structurally break RSA and ECC, does not even apply here, because there is no factorisation or discrete logarithm problem to attack. Grover's algorithm, which does act on symmetric methods, only reduces effective security to half the key length, at our key lengths that remains a practically unreachable number of operations. The Merkle chain itself rests on SHA-256, which by current understanding is considered quantum-resistant well beyond the middle of the century.
ML-KEM
FIPS 203
Key exchange. Module-lattice-based key encapsulation mechanism, derived from CRYSTALS-Kyber, used alongside classical RSA or ECDH key exchange when establishing a shared secret.
ML-DSA
FIPS 204
Additional signature layer, not a replacement. Module-lattice-based signature scheme, derived from CRYSTALS-Dilithium, is added to existing receipts as a second signature layer, without breaking the original HMAC-SHA256 signature or interrupting the Merkle chain. A system built exclusively on RSA would have to re-sign every historical artefact during a post-quantum migration, breaking the chain of evidence. Here, the additional layer can be applied while the existing chain remains unchanged.
ECDSA-P256
Classical signature, stays active. The existing, portable verification class for external verifiability remains, post-quantum methods complement it, they do not replace it.

This means for every receipt: an attacker with a quantum computer breaks the classical signature, but not the post-quantum signature. An attacker who finds a still-unknown weakness in the comparatively young lattice-based method breaks the new signature, but not the classical one. Breaking both simultaneously is the actual security threshold, not either one alone.

Continuity instead of re-signing
A system built exclusively on classical public-key cryptography would have to re-sign every historical artefact during a post-quantum migration, breaking the chain of evidence at exactly the point where it matters most. Because our internal chain integrity already rests on the quantum-resistant HMAC-SHA256, the post-quantum signature layer can be added on top without touching the existing chain. Not an absolute claim of uniqueness, but a structural advantage that follows from the architecture itself, not from a promise made after the fact.
→ See Quantum Security in detail
// Why now

The timeline is already running, independent of the machine.

2024
NIST finalises FIPS 203, 204, 205
After an eight-year public evaluation process starting in 2016, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology finalises the first three post-quantum standards in August 2024.
ONGOING
Encrypted traffic is already being harvested today
The harvest-now-decrypt-later risk is not a forecast, it describes behaviour that can already be happening now, independent of when the matching decryption capability becomes available.
2030
NSA migration deadline for national security systems
The NSA's Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0 sets 2030 as the mandatory migration deadline for US National Security Systems, a regulatory reference point, not our own deadline.
// Where we stand

Already ahead of what is currently required.

Neither NIS2 nor DORA nor the eIDAS 2.0 provisions currently mandate a post-quantum migration. The hybrid combination of ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and the already quantum-resistant HMAC-SHA256 is already active for us, not as a reaction to an obligation, but ahead of one. The same direction, post-quantum cryptography and zero-trust architecture as a modernisation priority, also appears in the US federal cyber strategy published in March 2026, alongside the NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust framework. We are not following a single rule after the fact, we already sit on the line several major frameworks are converging toward at the same time.

// Key custody

No key that belongs to a single place.

The master signing key does not sit with any single entity. It is split via Shamir Secret Sharing into five shares, distributed across five non-US jurisdictions. Every signing operation requires at least three of the five shares to be temporarily reassembled, no single operator, no single location ever holds full access.

Diagramm: 5 Shamir-Schlüsselanteile in DE, CH, NL, SE, LU, 3 davon bilden das Quorum zur Rekonstruktion des Master-Signing-Keys SHARE 1 DE active SHARE 2 CH active SHARE 3 NL active SHARE 4 SE not needed SHARE 5 LU not needed 3-OF-5 QUORUM EPHEMERAL RECONSTRUCTION · ZEROIZED AFTER SIGNING
3-of-5
Quorum
Minimum threshold for every signing operation. Five key shares are held in DE, CH, NL, SE and LU. At least three of them must be brought together to issue a Warranty Token or a system root signature. A single compromised or unavailable share is neither enough to sign, nor enough to block the system.
Ephemeral
No permanently reconstructed key. For every signature, the three shares are temporarily reassembled inside a secured enclave, an ephemeral key is generated, the signature is produced, and the key material is immediately zeroized afterward. A persistent, complete key never exists outside the five separated shares.
Rotatable
Compromised shares can be revoked and re-issued. A key-rotation protocol generates a new key epoch when needed, via a fresh 3-of-5 reconstruction. Old key IDs remain readable so historical HMAC signatures stay verifiable, even after a rotation.
Zero key custody, not just encryption
The difference to a single, well-encrypted key: there is no point at which a single jurisdiction, a single cloud provider, or a single employee could be legally or technically compelled to hand over the complete key, because the complete key never exists at any of those points.
// Infrastructure & incident response

Active in two regions, without a US hyperscaler.

Infrastructure runs on Hetzner (DE), IONOS (DE) and OVH (FR), deliberately without a US hyperscaler, to structurally avoid the reach of the US Cloud Act rather than negotiate around it contractually. Two regions run active-active in parallel, a third provides asynchronous geographic replication for disaster recovery.

TOPOLOGY
Active-active, bilateral
Two independent regions handle requests simultaneously, mutual TLS between backend services, strict egress policies, no persistently open connections. Serverless functions and containerless workers scale horizontally, queueing manages backpressure under load spikes.
FAILOVER
Compromise of a region
If a host or region fails or is compromised, the second active-active region takes over, a forensic snapshot analysis of the affected region runs in parallel. The append-only ledger cannot be altered retroactively at any point, regardless of what happens to the compromised region.

If a single key share is suspected to be compromised, operations follow a fixed, documented sequence, no ad-hoc handling, every step is itself recorded in the ledger.

Zeitleiste: Incident-Response-Ablauf von T+0 Initial-Triage bis Re-Key nach kompromittiertem Schlüsselanteil T+0 Initial Triage T+15–60min Custodian Auth SECURE CHANNEL Share Transfer T+1–8h Reconstruc- tion IMMEDIATELY AFTER Re-Key & Mitigation
T+0
Initial triage
Suspected compromise of a share is reported and logged, affected signing operations are pre-emptively paused.
T+15–60min
Custodian authentication
The key custodians of the remaining four jurisdictions are contacted and authenticated through a documented channel, before any share is moved.
Secure channel
Share transfer
Shares needed for reconstruction are transferred exclusively over a secured, logged channel, never over a general-purpose communication path.
T+1–8h
Reconstruction
Depending on the logistics of the jurisdictions involved, the 3-of-5 quorum for the emergency operation is reassembled.
Immediately after
Re-key & mitigation
The compromised share is revoked, a new share for the affected jurisdiction is generated via the rotation protocol, the event is documented forensically and added to the ledger.
What this does not guarantee
If the quorum fails because more than two of the five jurisdictions are unavailable at the same time, no new signatures can be issued, the system blocks for safety rather than continuing with a weakened quorum. A pre-authorised, cross-jurisdictional emergency procedure exists for exactly this case, documented and auditable, but it is not a substitute for an intact quorum in normal operation.
// Clarification

What this does not mean.

  • Not a replacement for general cybersecurity. Post-quantum cryptography protects against one specific, future mathematical attack, it does not replace access control, network security, or organisational diligence.
  • No claim that every cyber risk is eliminated. Lattice-based methods are well studied, but younger than RSA or ECC, the hybrid combination is exactly why it is the more cautious choice, not a superfluous one.
  • No certification by NIST or the NSA. We implement the published standards, we make no claim of certification by the standard-setters themselves.

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