Overview
- France’s cybersecurity agency ANSSI announced the certification cutoff on Thursday, June 18, 2026, and advised that buyers should use only quantum‑safe products by 2030.
- ANSSI certification is required for French government bodies and many critical infrastructure operators, which makes the move a de facto phase‑out of legacy cryptography for those customers.
- Officials said the change responds to the risk that adversaries could collect encrypted data now and decrypt it later once quantum machines mature, a scenario known as “harvest now, decrypt later.”
- The decision increases pressure on vendors that sell to governments and banks because a lack of quantum‑resistant algorithms could bar them from public contracts and audits.
- Major blockchain projects and firms are accelerating migration work: the Ethereum Foundation created a post‑quantum team, Stellar published a three‑stage roadmap, and exchanges and researchers are advising networks to plan validator and wallet upgrades to protect long‑lived funds.