Google: 'Q‑Day' Moved to 2029
Google warned the so‑called “quantum apocalypse” — the point when quantum computers could break current public‑key encryption — may arrive as soon as 2029, pushing organizations to accelerate post‑quantum cryptography plans. The company and other vendors are already migrating infrastructure to PQC algorithms like CRYSTALS‑Kyber and Dilithium as attackers engage in “harvest now, decrypt later” campaigns. (gizmodo.com) (benzinga.com)
Google posted a detailed PQC migration update on March 25, 2026, authored by Heather Adkins and Sophie Schmieg on its Innovation & AI blog. (blog.google) Android 17 will integrate the NIST-aligned ML‑DSA signature into Verified Boot and begin PQC tests in the Android 17 beta ahead of the production release. (security.googleblog.com) Google described the Android work as a “comprehensive architectural upgrade” intended to build a quantum-resistant chain of trust from device power-on through app execution. (security.googleblog.com) Chrome has migrated its browser’s hybrid post-quantum key-exchange to ML‑KEM and documented a TLS codepoint change to 0x11EC as part of that transition in Chrome 131. (thehackernews.com) The Chrome team said the ML‑KEM change was driven by incompatibilities with the previously deployed hybrid approach, prompting an explicit protocol codepoint update. (thehackernews.com) NIST published its first finalized post‑quantum cryptography standards on August 13, 2024, creating formal, implementable standards for post‑quantum key-establishment and signature primitives. (nist.gov) A May 2025 preprint from Google Quantum AI researcher Craig Gidney estimated a fault-tolerant quantum computer with fewer than one million noisy qubits could factor a 2048‑bit RSA integer in under a week, cutting prior qubit estimates roughly 20×. (arxiv.org) Industry coverage flagged that Google’s schedule accelerates well ahead of some U.S. government guidance—reporting an NSA target around 2031 and broader agency readiness timelines near 2035—while Google noted it has been testing PQC since 2016 and plans PQC support across Chrome, Cloud and Android with priority on authentication services. (itsecurityguru.org)
