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Frost & Sullivan recently analyzed the post-quantum cryptography (PQC) industry and, based on its assessment, recognizes IBM (ibm.com) with the 2024 Global Company of the Year Award. The company’s involvement in cryptography dates back to the 1960s when its submission of the Lucifer cipher was adopted as the precursor for data encryption standard (DES). This started its long history of contributing to cryptography and standards and helping secure modern communications and digital operations. The company has demonstrated thought leadership through multiple initiatives and alliances with leading technical working groups, including the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other PQC coalitions. It also has close engagements with the international and regional telecommunications and financial services industry, standards and industry bodies, and anchor clients on the definition, implementation, and interoperability of standards (including performing several technical flagship projects with them). IBM offers many cryptography solutions, including:
• Cloud key management;
• Certificate lifecycle automation;
• Managed encryption services;
• Cryptography asset discovery, observability, and remediation;
• PQC-specific education programs;
• Lattice-based cryptosystems;
• Distributed cryptography;
• Homomorphic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs.
IBM’s extensive research in cryptography, its contribution to open-source libraries, and its work with international standards organizations position it to implement and evaluate the adoption of new algorithms. NIST recently published three PQC algorithms as standards, two of which IBM developed ML-KEM (formerly CRYSTALS-KYBER) and ML-DSA (CRYSTAL-Dilithium); SPHINCS+ was the third announced standard. IBM’s FN-DSA (formerly Falcon) was also among the four algorithms NIST initially selected in 2022, and is expected to be standardized in the future. And IBM’s submission of three additional quantum-safe signature schemes in 2023 continues to support NIST and its ongoing standardization efforts. In addition to its leadership in the development of post-quantum cryptography, IBM has developed a distinct set of technological capabilities called IBM Quantum Safe technology to enable clients to evaluate their cryptography posture and help them on their journey to becoming quantum-safe.Ozgun Pelit, senior industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan, observed,“As part of its foundational work on PQC, IBM closely studied over 25 industries and sectors to map out the specific use cases of public key encryption across business value chains. From banking and finance to retail, consumer goods, energy, utilities, telecommunications, and government, the company identified individual dependencies and the impact the transition will have on business processes and operational stages.”
IBM’s cross-functional teams work with client teams to ensure the consistency, standardization, and establishment of best practices when setting up and scaling capabilities, ranging from vendor and technology relationship management to portfolio optimization. IBM has also been instrumental in defining data representation to describe, inventory, and share information about the presence of cryptographic artifacts in applications and systems through its cryptography bill of materials (CBOM) similar to the Software Bill of Material (SBOM) and a key building block of software security and supply chain risk management. CBOM captures cryptography artifacts and assesses the cryptographic posture of assets, and it is integrated into SBOM standards and used in vendor, alliance, and open-source projects. Beyond its proven enterprise-focused methodology, IBM is working with several national governments on PQC, helping them define national quantum-safe advisories and directives at the national level and industry-specific guidelines for critical infrastructure use cases.
“IBM’s expertise in quantum computing and post-quantum cryptography positions it as an all-encompassing partner for organizations in the preparation and execution of the PQC journey. The company harnesses its proven methodology, lessons learned, and best practices to tailor solutions to the specific needs of its clients,” added Ozgun. For the wide range of capabilities it offers to improve clients’ transformation, offerings, collaborative approaches, and overall performance, IBM earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2024 Global Company of the Year Award (frost.com) in the post-quantum cryptography industry.
Contact: Willa Hahn, External Relations, IBM Research
E: Willa.hahn[.]ibm.com.
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camila.tinajero[.]frost.com 
