Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of central government cryptographic systems is assessed as capable of being upgraded in place to the standards published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in August 2024; and what proportion will require hardware replacement.

The UK Government will follow the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) recommendations on post-quantum cryptography standards. Currently, the NCSC's recommended algorithms include those standardised by NIST in 2024. The Government Cyber Unit is developing a suite of guidance to support departments' migration planning, in line with NCSC timelines and will ask departments to complete a discovery of their cryptographic assets to understand the proportion that will require migration. This will include if assets require hardware replacement.