Proton Mail Launches Post Quantum Encryption

Proton Mail now offers post-quantum encryption to protect against future threats from quantum computers.

The rise of quantum computers could pose a potential risk to our current encryption algorithms.

So far, no quantum computer exists that's powerful enough to break our current encryption, but algorithms already exist that, given a powerful enough quantum computer, could break our current encryption algorithms.

Google has recently moved it’s deadline for implementing post-quantum encryption to 2029, a goal they admit is ambitious.

The NSA set a deadline for transition to PQC for 2033, already an ambitious goal.

The reason for the urgency even though quantum computers capable of breaking our current encryption are likely years away is due to an attack called harvest now, decrypt later.

Encrypted data you send now over the internet can be stored and decrypted later when quantum computers catch up.

Proton has now joined Google, Apple, and many other companies in transitioning to PQC in their products.

The feature is being rolled out to all plans gradually in Proton Mail, so if you don’t see the feature yet, it will be available soon.

Proton says they’re adding support for OpenPGP v6, a newer version of the standard that supports modern encryption algorithms and PQC.

We are also standardizing quantum-safe encrypted email across the open email ecosystem, including with projects such as Thunderbird, so these protections can work between providers — not just within Proton — and help people stay safe no matter which email service they use.

Proton says that for now, you won’t be able to re-encrypt emails that were encrypted with non-PQC.

You can check if the feature is available for you and enable it now if you want to.

There’s been issues with the new OpenPGP standards, with LibrePGP rejecting some of the suggested improvements to the OpenPGP standard and creating their own standard based on the previous version.

Hopefully this doesn’t create too much of a rift in the PGP landscape and email clients can agree that improved cryptography and other features are important for the future of secure email.

Since Proton says they’re working with popular email clients, I hope we can see wider adoption of PQC in email clients going forward.