Connectivity cloud company Cloudflare is expanding end-to-end support for post-quantum cryptography to its zero-trust network access solution.
Available immediately, organisations can securely route communications from web browsers to corporate web applications to gain immediate, end-to-end quantum-safe connectivity. By mid-2025, Cloudflare will extend this support to include all IP protocols, significantly broadening compatibility across most corporate applications and devices.
With this, organisations will be able to rely on Cloudflare to transition their internet communications between users, devices, and applications to post-quantum cryptography without the complexity of individually upgrading each corporate application or system.
Encryption is used to keep online data protected. As quantum computers move closer to production, that data is at risk of being unlocked, breaking current encryption methods and potentially exposing data that was once secured. Conventional cryptographic algorithms used across the internet, securing everything from major financial organisations and healthcare providers to government agencies and consumer smart devices, are vulnerable to post-quantum attacks.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has made a landmark announcement to phase out conventional cryptographic algorithms and to adopt post-quantum cryptography by 2030, as experts now estimate significant risks could emerge in as little as five years.
There is an urgent need to adopt post-quantum cryptography. Cloudflare has contributed to the creation of industry standards and making post-quantum security free, by default, for all of its customers.
“Cloudflare has long committed to making post-quantum security the new baseline for Internet security, delivering it to all customers so we can bolster defences against future quantum threats,” said Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince. “Now, we’re offering that protection built directly into our zero trust solutions. We want every Cloudflare customer to have a clear path to quantum safety, and we are already working with some of the most innovative banks, ISPs, and governments around the world as they begin their journeys to quantum security. We will continue to make advanced cryptography accessible to everyone, at no cost, in all of our products.”
Since 2017, Cloudflare has researched, developed, and help standardise post-quantum cryptography. Today, over 35% of the human-generated traffic connecting to Cloudflare’s global network benefits from post-quantum protection.
With this announcement, Cloudflare’s Zero Trust Platform will enable organisations to:
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Protect against against harvest-now, decrypt later attacks: Cybercriminals can capture encrypted data today and store it until they can decrypt it when better quantum computers are available. Now, Cloudflare’s customers can direct their web traffic through Cloudflare’s global network, to protect against these future attacks by using post-quantum cryptography;
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Enable corporate web applications with end-to-end quantum security: Organisations can grant employees access to corporate web applications, like HR systems, payroll, and collaboration systems, without needing to upgrade the security of every single corporate web application individually. Cloudflare Access can secure the internet traffic from web browsers to corporate web applications from quantum threats;
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Deliver quantum safety for internet traffic travelling to any corporate office, cloud environment, or datacenter: By mid-2025, organisations will benefit from end-to-end quantum safety for any protocol connected through Cloudflare’s most popular network configurations by installing Cloudflare’s WARP device client on their end users devices.
Cloudflare’s quantum-safe secure web gateway and clientless Access network configurations are now available, and WARP-client-to-tunnel network configurations will be available by mid-2025.
