August 2024 marked the beginning of a new era for VPN security as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released the first three quantum-resistant encryption standards. NordVPN was among the companies jumping on the bandwagon when it joined the post-quantum revolution in October that year on Linux devices.
Throughout 2025, TechRadar’s top-rated VPN has continued to build resilience against threats posed by the next generation of computers, which experts warn will eventually break current encryption standards. In May, NordVPN reached a major milestone by extending post-quantum encryption (PQE) protection across all its applications.
Where are we now?
The NordVPN team built its PQE framework on NIST standards, adding the ML-KEM algorithm (formerly CRYSTALS-Kyber) to the NordLynx protocol. This algorithm serves as the primary standard for the cryptographic key exchanges required to secure data across networks.
Similar to other VPN providers, NordVPN adopted a hybrid approach to quantum-resistant encryption. This means that PQE algorithms work alongside classic encryption methods.
To benefit from this protection, users must manually enable the feature within the app’s Settings under the Connections tab. PQE automatically activates whenever a connection is established via the NordLynx protocol.
In a bid to go beyond industry standards even further, NordVPN’s PQE changes encryption keys every 90 seconds for extra security. It’s an approach that the team has copyrighted with an official patent.
What’s coming next?
With the VPN tunnel now secured against quantum threats, the NordVPN team is shifting its focus to a stage that is often overlooked: the login phase.
“The authentication phase is not covered yet, but we want to cover the whole spectrum. So, that’s what we are looking for right now,” Briedis told TechRadar.
If NordVPN successfully integrates post-quantum security into this stage, it will be the first VPN provider to do so. Achieving this is a critical hurdle, as the authentication process must be both robust and efficient to remain viable for daily use.
“Post-quantum authentication ensures that even in a quantum future, we can trust digital identities, signatures, and communications. It is used anywhere identity verification is critical,” said Briedis.
While the team does not have a fixed date for the release yet, Briedis hopes to add authentication to NordVPN’s PQC cryptography system within the first half of 2026.
End goal – crypographic agility
Securing the login process against quantum threats would be a significant milestone, but NordVPN views it as part of a much larger strategy. “We are already researching and looking forward to how to make sure that we can change the cryptographic system,” Briedis explained.
The core of this strategy is “cryptographic agility” – an approach that allows a system to switch between different encryption methods quickly and without a total overhaul.
While post-quantum encryption is the current gold standard, the landscape is constantly shifting. As quantum hardware becomes more powerful, today’s “quantum-resistant” standards could theoretically be bypassed in the future. NordVPN’s goal is to build a system that can adapt to these changes the moment they occur.
“Since we started to implement post-quantum encryption in the VPN, we could see that this is not the end. For this reason, we are already researching the best way to create the cryptographic agility for VPN protocols as well,” Briedis told Techradar.
NordVPN hopes to lead the industry in this area, even seeking to patent its specific implementation of agile encryption.
Briedis said: “This is what we are especially investing in. It’d also be a good morale boost for the engineering team if they can have the authority to say to have created this. It would ultimately be a good thing for all the people who work in security as well. So, it goes both ways.”
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