Assured Cyber Security Consultancy

All organisations will need to plan their migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) over the coming years. The NCSC has published guidance – Timelines for migration to post-quantum cryptography – for this mass technology migration.  This includes a strong initial focus on carrying out a full discovery exercise (assessing your estate to understand which services and infrastructure that depend on cryptography need to be upgraded to PQC), and then building an initial plan for the migration itself.  For more information on the NCSC’s technical recommendations for post-quantum cryptography please also see our paper, Next steps in preparing for migration to post-quantum cryptography.

There are two offerings under the PQC pilot:

• Discovery & Migration Planning: all companies within the pilot will be assured to support organisations in cryptographic discovery exercises, to identify priority services for migration, and to support the development of an initial migration plan.
• Advice: some companies will also be assured to offer direct advice on the use of PQC, in line with the NCSC’s published positions.

To be eligible for the ‘Post-quantum cryptography advice’ offering, a supplier must demonstrate they also meet the standard for ‘Post-quantum cryptography discovery & migration planning'.

This pilot is expected to run until 31^st March 2027 at which point the criteria and learning will be reviewed.

Companies that are successful in meeting the scheme standard to join the pilot are not guaranteed full membership to the ACSC-PQC scheme when the pilot ends.

A copy of the Standard, Working Practices document and Buyer's Guide can be found in the Downloads section on this page.

Due to the high levels of interest, we have closed the expression of interest for the pilot. When the pilot has reached its conclusion, we will review our learning and publish more detail about the future of the Offering.

The full list of PQC Consultancies can be found on the NCSC website.

The Buyer's Guide, available in the Download section below, provides further guidance on the Post-quantum Cryptography Pilot Offering.

Government and public sector buyers can invite supplier to bid for working using the Government Commercial Agency’s (formerly Crown Commercial Service) Dynamic Purchasing System. Government Commercial Agency website - Cyber Security Services 3.

Other customers should contact their chosen Assured Cyber Security Consultancy directly.

At the NCSC, we are taking action to remove artificial barriers to entry to all of our Schemes. So, if you spot something which you think unfairly prevents you from applying, please let us know using our feedback form.