Free Course: Quantum-Safe Cryptography, From Qubits to Production

Our five-day Quantum-Safe Cryptography course, the same material we teach live for $5,295 a seat, is now pinned in the class portal as a free program. You get the course guide, the video recordings and every browser-based lab, including the capstone. You don't need physics and you don't need advanced math. You just need Security+-level crypto knowledge and some comfort at a Linux prompt.

This stopped being a research topic in 2026

For years, "quantum-safe" was something you put on a roadmap and pushed to next year. That's over. NIST finalized its first three post-quantum standards in August 2024. Since then, the deadlines have moved from white papers into executive orders and procurement rules.

• Aug 2024NIST publishes FIPS 203, 204 and 205
  ML-KEM for key exchange, plus ML-DSA and SLH-DSA for signatures
• Mar 2025NIST picks HQC as a backup
  A code-based KEM, so the world isn't betting everything on lattices
• Jun 22, 2026Executive Order 14412
  "Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks" sets hard dates for federal high-value systems
• Oct 1, 2026NSA announces new PQC measures
  Warns of "harvest now, decrypt later" and of "trust now, exploit later"
• Oct 16, 2026Germany publishes its national migration guideline
  High-risk systems migrated by the end of 2030, and the transition largely done by 2035
• 2027New National Security Systems
  New commercial NSS must be able to support quantum-resistant algorithms
• Dec 31, 2030 / 2031Federal cutover
  Post-quantum key establishment by 2030, then post-quantum signatures by 2031

Here's the part people miss. Nobody needs a working quantum computer today for this to hurt. Adversaries can record encrypted traffic now and decrypt it once the hardware arrives. If your data has to stay secret for ten years and your migration takes five, your clock is already running. The course calls this Mosca's inequality, and it's the first thing I'd want any ISSO to understand.

"The quantum threat is an existential threat to the digital ecosystem, but we have the tools today to combat it." — Morgan Stern, NSA Effort Lead for Quantum Resistance

The tools part is true. Cloudflare reports that over two-thirds of browser traffic to its network already uses post-quantum encryption. The algorithms are in production. What most organizations are missing is people who know where their own cryptography lives and how to replace it without breaking things.

From qubits to a migration plan

The course moves from the physics, kept light, to the threat, then to the new math, and finally to the hard part: moving a real network.

Half of this course is hands-on

All 14 labs run in your browser, so you don't have to install anything or build a home lab. Here's what you'll be doing:

If any of these is you, start this week

• Network and security engineers who own TLS, VPNs or SSH
• PKI, identity and crypto admins who will be reissuing certificates
• ISSOs, ISSMs and compliance staff facing CNSA 2.0 milestones
• Architects and CISO staff who have to write the migration plan
• DoD, federal and defense-contractor personnel, plus anyone who wants a skill few hiring managers can find yet

Three steps, and it's yours

1. Create your free account. Sign up with email or Google. It takes about a minute.
2. Request to join. Find Quantum-Safe Cryptography pinned near the top of the class portal and click Request to Join.
3. Enter the classroom. Once you're approved, the course appears in your Class Hub and you can work through it at your own pace.

— Scott