Defending Encryption in the Post Quantum Era

This document is a concise primer on post-quantum cryptography: it explains how quantum computing (via algorithms like Shor’s) threatens current public-key systems, describes symmetric vs asymmetric cryptography and hybrid models, summarizes NIST’s initial PQC standards (CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, SPHINCS+), and recommends organizational steps — crypto discovery, retiring weak algorithms, improving key/certificate management, modernizing hardware, workforce training, and phased migration to PQC — to build quantum-resilient security.