# post-quantum
## English
### Alternative forms

* postquantum

### Etymology

From post- (“after, later”) +‎ quantum.

### Adjective

post-quantum (not comparable)
* Existing in the hypothetical time period after the development of powerful quantum computers.
    As research continues on quantum computers, we are quickly approaching the post-quantum age.
** 2016 March 18, Johannes Buchmann, Denis Butin, Florian Göpfert, Albrecht Petzoldt, “Post-Quantum Cryptography: State of the Art”, in The New Codebreakers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; 9100), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 89:Once the need for post-quantum public-key cryptography is established, the question arises what it means for a public-key scheme to be secure in a post-quantum world.
** 2018 February 16, Ryan F. Mandelbaum, “Quantum Hacking Could Be 'Catastrophic' If We Don't Develop Better Cryptography”, in Gizmodo‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-25:Computing with Shor’s algorithm is a little further on the horizon than other applications. But adapting to a new post-quantum landscape isn’t just a quick patch download.
** 2021 October 4, “With Quantum Computing’s Rise, Cybersecurity Takes Center Stage”, in Wired‎, San Francisco, C.A.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-16:The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is stepping in to prepare for this post-quantum future.
** 2022 April 26, Joseph Marks, “Government is racing against the clock to keep encryption secure”, in The Washington Post‎, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-04-27:The challenge for post-quantum cryptographers is to encode messages and other data using math problems so complex that even quantum computers can't solve them.
** Suitable for the post-quantum age; quantum-resistant.
    Cryptographers are at work developing post-quantum algorithms for the future.
*** 2015 July 1, Adrienne LaFrance, “The Race to Build a Quantum Computer”, in The Atlantic‎, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-06:There's an entire field of study dedicated to post-quantum cryptography. It's based on writing algorithms that could withstand an attack by a quantum computer.
*** 2015 September 1, Daniel Oberhaus, “Countdown to the Crypto-Apocalypse”, in VICE‎, archived from the original on 2022-08-23:These new algorithms fall into one of two broad categories: quantum and post-quantum.
*** 2018 October 8, Erica Klarreich, “Graduate Student Solves Quantum Verification Problem”, in Quanta Magazine‎, New York, N.Y.: Simons Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-02-03:Methods such as the RSA algorithm that are used to encrypt things like online transactions are not post-quantum — a large quantum computer could break them, because their security depends on the hardness of factoring large numbers.
*** 2021 December 3, James Titcomb, “China's quantum leap plunges West into a race to protect its secrets”, in The Daily Telegraph‎, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-12-13:The report recommended that companies start working on "post-quantum decryption", an emerging field of protecting data in a way that quantum computers could not unlock.
*** 2023 March 22, Skip Sanzeri, “Quantum Computers: Why We Should Be Both Excited And Concerned”, in Forbes‎, New York, N.Y.: Forbes Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-22:If the data stolen by the balloon was encrypted with post-quantum cybersecurity, it would not be breakable with classical or quantum computers. Therefore, we should upgrade to post-quantum cybersecurity as quickly as possible so that data stolen today remains private for the longest possible time.
* (rare) Beyond quantum physics.
** 1998, Walter Schwarz, Dorothy Schwartz, Living Lightly: Travels in Post-Consumer Society, Charlbury, Oxfordshire: Jon Carpenter, →ISBN, pages 326–327:Marti took us to the Laboratory of Human Evolution, a small library of Mothernalia containing books about quantum and pseudo-quantum and post-quantum science, several copies of Rupert Sheldrake, the nine volumes of the Agenda (Mother's diaries) out on loan, nine tapes of Mother's edited conversations in both French and English.
** 2002, Guy Lyon Playfair, Twin Telepathy: The Psychic Connection, 2nd edition, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page 154:However, before anyone nominates me for a Nobel Prize for solving the mystery of telepathy, I should add that it cannot yet be explained in terms of post-quantum science either.
** 2013, James Gollnick, The Spiritual, Social, and Scientific Meanings of Dreams: What Do Our Dreams Teach Us?, Lewiston, N.Y., […]: The Edwin Mellen Press, →ISBN, page 355:Even if we do develop a post-quantum explanation of reality, however, we must keep in mind the metaphorical nature of such a model and its limitation as a metaphor for understanding only certain aspects of reality.

#### Related terms

* quantum-resistant

### Further reading

* Post-quantum cryptography on Wikipedia.Wikipedia