Month/Year of Graduation

5-2026

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Harvey Siy

Abstract

This paper and complementary capstone project aim to explore the state of post-quantum cryptography today by defining the algorithms with which quantum computers can decipher modern asymmetric cryptographic algorithms in exponentially accelerated time, exploring national standards body NIST’s recommendations to circumvent these weaknesses with post-quantum solutions, and implementing recommended algorithms in my group’s project for the UNO Computer Science Capstone course, LockTalk. After having decided on ML-KEM for quantum-resistant asymmetric key transfer and AES-256 for symmetric message encryption and decryption, I was able to cryptographically encode messages to obscure their plaintext values from communication interceptions without any discernible increase in message send times. This project served as a source of exposure to modern developments in the field of cryptography and can be used as a reference to guide post-quantum encryption implementation, ensuring message confidentiality in the face of unprecedented gains in cryptanalysis with the use of quantum computing.

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