Your Entry Point to Post-Quantum Cryptography
The global transition to post-quantum cryptography is underway. NIST has finalized standards. Government procurement gates and dated transition milestones are in place, with exact obligations depending on jurisdiction, sector, and system scope. The harvest-now-decrypt-later threat is active today. This half-day course gives you the foundational understanding you need to engage with PQC migration work, whether you are a security professional, IT leader, developer, or consultant.
Post-Quantum Foundation covers what every professional needs to know before going deeper: what the quantum threat actually is (and is not), what NIST has standardized and why, what a PQC migration involves in practice, and how to assess timelines and urgency with evidence rather than vendor-driven fear.
This course does not prepare you for hands-on implementation, migration planning, or any Quantum Academy certification exam. Completing it is the required first step before enrolling in Post-Quantum Certified Specialist (PQCS) Training.
Course Outline
Module 1. The Quantum Threat to Cryptography
What quantum computers can and cannot do. How Shor’s algorithm breaks RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography. Why symmetric algorithms (AES) and hash functions are less affected. The distinction between quantum advantage demonstrations and cryptographically relevant capability. The HNDL threat model: adversaries harvesting encrypted data today for future decryption when a CRQC becomes available. The TNFL threat model: digital signatures that could be forged retroactively, undermining trust in software updates, legal documents, and financial transactions. Why both threats create urgency even though a CRQC does not yet exist.
Module 2. NIST Post-Quantum Standards
The NIST standardization process and what it produced. ML-KEM for key encapsulation: what it does, where it applies, and why it is the default choice for most key exchange scenarios. ML-DSA for general-purpose digital signatures: performance characteristics and deployment considerations. SLH-DSA as the conservative, hash-based alternative for organizations that want security assumptions independent of lattice problems. FN-DSA for applications where compact signatures matter. HQC as the code-based KEM selected by NIST in March 2025 and now in standardization providing algorithmic diversity. Why NIST selected these algorithms and how to read the standards at a level sufficient for planning conversations.
Module 3. PQC Migration Overview
What a PQC migration actually involves: the PQC Migration Framework phases from discovery and inventory through implementation, verification, and operational handover. Why migrations take years, not months: the discovery challenge, the testing burden, the vendor dependency problem, and the coordination required across interconnected systems. Where organizations typically start. The role of hybrid cryptography as a transition mechanism. What “done” looks like, and why migration is not a one-time project but a permanent operational capability.
Module 4. Regulatory and Market Drivers
CNSA 2.0 and the US government timeline, including the January 2027 acquisition gate. EU quantum-readiness initiatives and the NIS2 connection. Sector-specific mandates in financial services (G7 Cyber Expert Group, PCI DSS roadmap), telecommunications (GSMA PQ.01-PQ.07), and defense (NSM-10). How insurance markets and client contracts are creating commercial pressure independent of regulation. The difference between compliance-driven and risk-driven migration, and why organizations need both lenses.
Format and Delivery
This program is available online on-demand, live online, in person, and as private team training; current prices for each format are in the booking section below. Live online and in-person sessions include 180 days of access to the online on-demand course. Where that course is not yet published, the 180 days start on the day it is.
Prerequisites
None.
This Is a Prerequisite For
Certificate of Attendance
Upon completion, you will receive a Quantum Academy certificate of attendance. This is a course completion record, not a professional certification. It does not include an exam or a credential.
Recommended Reading
- Quantum Ready: the complete guide to PQC migration
- PQC Migration Framework: the open-source methodology referenced throughout this course
Pricing
| Option | Price |
|---|---|
| Online (self-paced) | US$349 |
| Live online (instructor-led) | US$529 |
| In-person (instructor-led) | US$699 |
| Foundation to PQCS, on-demand bundle (Foundation + PQCS on-demand training + exam) | US$2,649 |
| Foundation to PQCS, in-person bundle (Foundation + PQCS training + exam) | US$3,999 |
All prices are in US dollars.
Who this course is for
Security professionals, IT managers, compliance officers, risk analysts, software developers, enterprise architects, and business leaders who need a grounded introduction to post-quantum cryptography. No prior quantum computing or advanced cryptography knowledge is required.
What you’ll be able to do afterward
- Explain how a cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) threatens current public-key cryptographic systems, including RSA, ECC, and Diffie-Hellman
- Identify which systems and data in an organization are vulnerable to quantum-enabled attacks, including harvest-now-decrypt-later (HNDL) and trust-now-forge-later (TNFL) scenarios
- Describe the NIST post-quantum algorithm suite – the finalized ML-KEM (formerly CRYSTALS-Kyber), ML-DSA (formerly CRYSTALS-Dilithium), and SLH-DSA (formerly SPHINCS+), plus FN-DSA (formerly FALCON), still in standardization as FIPS 206 – and their intended use cases
- Outline the regulatory and compliance environment driving PQC adoption, including CNSA 2.0, the EU Cybersecurity Act, and sector-specific mandates
- Articulate the business case for starting PQC migration planning now, even while CRQC timelines remain uncertain
- Apply Mosca’s inequality as a decision framework for migration timing
What you leave with
You leave with the course handbook, a PDF of the full material with the instructor notes written out in place of the slides’ bullet points, and a PDF copy of Quantum Ready, included at no extra cost. The handbook is yours to keep. For most organizations, that shared reference is the clearest return on a training budget.
Enrollment includes 180 days of access to the online on-demand course. Where that course is not yet published, the 180 days start on the day it is.
Where this course fits
Nothing is required. Introduction to Quantum Security covers the same ground in an hour at no cost, if you want to see the shape of the subject first. The certification track continues to PQCS Specialist Training, which requires this course’s certificate of attendance. PQCS is the gateway credential: the Manager, Architect, and Validator tracks all require an active PQCS certification, so managers and architects pass through it too.
Why we teach this
The course is built on the Applied Quantum PQC Migration Framework, published openly under Creative Commons at pqcframework.org and written by the practitioners who teach here. The people who teach this course are running migration programs inside organizations now, and the course covers what those programs hit.
About this program
Quantum Academy credentials are private professional credentials issued by Quantum Academy, a trade name of Post-Quantum Institute. They are not government-issued licenses, accredited degrees, or academic credit, and earning one does not guarantee employment, promotion, regulatory approval, or any other specific outcome.
Quantum Academy programs are educational and informational only, and are not legal, compliance, or engineering advice.
