Cloudflare Post-Quantum Cryptography

Cloudflare delivers post-quantum encryption at the network edge today and is at the forefront of post-quantum authentication development for tomorrow. We’ve committed to be fully post-quantum secure across our entire platform by 2029.

Route your traffic through our global network to gain an immediate compensating control against quantum threats, without disrupting your infrastructure, upgrading hardware, or paying extra.

Quantum threats are already here

While the industry treats "Q-Day," the moment quantum computers break conventional cryptography, as a 2030 problem, adversaries are attacking today. By executing "harvest now, decrypt later" campaigns, they can actively stockpile your sensitive, encrypted data to crack when quantum computers mature. To survive the quantum transition, the market faces a two-pronged post-quantum cryptography (PQC) challenge for encryption and authentication.

The two halves of the PQC problem

Organizations need instant, network-level compensating controls to secure data in transit today, buying time for complex internal infrastructure upgrades.

Most organizations lack a roadmap for post-quantum authentication, leaving them vulnerable to forged credentials and unauthorized access once Q-Day arrives.

Achieve instant post-quantum encryption with built-in crypto agility

Skip the costly rip-and-replace hardware cycles. By routing your traffic through Cloudflare, you gain an immediate compensating control against "harvest now, decrypt later" campaigns and gain a path to PQ authentication once available. We deliver post-quantum encryption at the network layer over the public Internet by default, securing your data in transit today while buying you time to upgrade internal systems at your own pace.

Gain an immediate compensating control at the network layer without upgrading your internal servers. Leverage our robust PQ encryption implementation, which already secures over two-thirds of human-generated traffic reaching our global network.

Unlike legacy vendors struggling with TLS 1.3 adoption, Cloudflare’s hybrid approach combines classical algorithms with ML-KEM. This architecture results in a net performance boost for secure connections, eliminating the typical PQC performance penalty.

Maintain continuous crypto-agility and compliance with evolving NIST and IETF standards through Cloudflare’s adaptive platform. We do not just follow standards; we actively help governments and standards bodies like the IETF draft them.

Prepare for Q-Day by ensuring adversaries cannot forge credentials or impersonate your APIs in the future. Cloudflare is actively solving the challenges of post-quantum signatures. This means our customers automatically gain PQ authentication as it becomes available.

Global leaders, including 45% of the Fortune 500, rely on Cloudflare

Ready to have a conversation with a specialist?

Cloudflare’s platform simplifies PQC migration

Cloudflare’s global network delivers PQC at the network edge by default. By routing your traffic through our composable platform, you instantly protect users, applications, and network infrastructure against "harvest now, decrypt later" threats.

PQ encryption at Cloudflare today

Secure websites and APIs against “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks. We provide PQC coverage for sites proxied over Cloudflare. No code changes or web server upgrades are required.

Protect internal access with post-quantum zero trust for every user and on-ramp, e.g., browser, device client, app connector. Crypto-agility is built in; no re-architecting your SASE implementation is necessary.

Extend PQC to WAN and site-to-site VPN through interoperable PQ IPsec. Cover every SASE on-ramp across distributed infrastructure with hybrid ML-KEM.

Frequently asked questions

What is Q-Day and how does it impact current encryption?

Q-Day is the future point when quantum computers will be powerful enough to break standard public-key cryptography, such as RSA and ECC, using Shor's algorithm. Because of this looming threat, NIST has announced that these algorithms will be deprecated by 2030.

What is a "harvest now, decrypt later" attack?

In these active campaigns, adversaries stockpile your sensitive, encrypted data today. Their goal is to hoard this data until quantum technology matures enough to break the legacy encryption and reveal the stolen information.

Do I need to upgrade my internal servers to get post-quantum security?

No. Upgrading every internal server is a massive effort, so Cloudflare acts as an immediate compensating control. By routing traffic through our network, you instantly gain post-quantum protection over the public Internet by default, buying you time to upgrade internal systems at your own pace.

Will post-quantum cryptography (PQC) slow down my network performance?

While legacy network security vendors struggle with PQC performance overhead, Cloudflare uses a hybrid approach combining classical algorithms with ML-KEM. This architecture actually results in a net performance boost for secure connections over TLS 1.3.

What is the difference between post-quantum encryption and authentication?

Post-quantum encryption secures data in transit to stop data harvesting today, while post-quantum authentication will prevent forged credentials and unauthorized access after Q-Day. Cloudflare is actively developing post-quantum authentication for its SASE platform by 2028 and full platform by 2029.