NIST officials detail impact of staff cuts on encryption and other priorities

NIST officials briefed the Information Security Privacy Advisory Board that staffing reductions and budget cuts are driving a tighter focus on national security, cybersecurity, AI, and post-quantum encryption work within ITL. The agency, which validates cryptography for U.S. and Canadian government use, has lowered its validation backlog from nearly two years to about six months (averaging 348 days per case) and aims to further compress timelines to days through automation despite reduced headcount. As the federal government migrates to quantum-resistant algorithms and plans to deprecate RSA by 2030, NIST has begun testing its first post-quantum cryptographic module and intends to accelerate validations by streamlining queues.