Drones, Quantum, and Symmetric Solutions: How AKMSecure Is Circumventing the Quantum Threat via Symmetric Encryption

AKMSecure, a California-based cybersecurity company, has developed, patented, and is actively piloting its AKMSecure Autonomous Key Management protocol, positioning this Software Development Kit (SDK)-based protocol as a solution to both the fast-approaching question of quantum resilience within systems and the well-trodden operational difficulties associated with PKI management. This includes tackling certificate sprawl, effective certificate and key rotation, especially in hard-to-reach systems, and PKI implementation in the face of long-lived, proprietary, or legacy Operational Technology (OT) assets, air-gapped networks, and constrained devices. With plans to sell via partners, system integrators, software vendors, and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) channels, AKMSecure’s patented protocol is deployable in both hardware and software, provisioning one-time credentials backed by symmetric encryption and supporting automated, session-based rotation of those credentials once provisioned.

The prospective disruption that AKMSecure’s offering may trigger is becoming apparent, with four patents already granted and three pending. Yet its impact on the quest for quantum resilience, the PKI market, and regulatory compliance is what marks it out as one to watch in the dynamically evolving quantum-safe security ecosystem. Based on Shor’s algorithm, Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computers (CRQCs) possess a superpolynomial or exponential advantage when it comes to breaking asymmetric encryption (e.g., RSA, ECC, algorithms using one-way functions like integral factorization and discrete logs). Thus, for now, the quantum threat is centered around the asymmetric algorithms used in PKI, with the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) standardization focused on asymmetric Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). Meanwhile, symmetric algorithms are not reliant on mathematical hardness in the same manner. Consequently, the quadratic efficiencies proffered by CRQCs are inconsequential in the face of symmetric cryptography (e.g., hash-based algorithms).

By provisioning credentials based strictly on symmetric encryption, AKMSecure’s protocol circumvents the quantum threat entirely, offering a key differentiator for AKMSecure in the quantum market. While Grover’s algorithm provides quadratic speed-ups that can accelerate brute-force attacks—enabling attackers to effectively half symmetric key strength rather than break it (e.g., reducing AES-256 security to AES-128 level)—it is largely disregarded as a practical threat today, failing to derail solutions relying exclusively on symmetric cryptography like that of AKMSecure, including AES-256 and SHA-384 / 512.

Given the memory and compute requirements of asymmetric, NIST-standardized PQC, upgrading PKI systems to ensure quantum resilience brings a hoard of implementation obstacles. Reduced certificate life spans are also ramping up pressure operationally, contributing to ballooning cryptographic debt and certificate sprawl. And that is notwithstanding the need to integrate protocol support for various PQC algorithms to enable crypto-agility should the new algorithms prove insecure.

Consequently, AKMSecure positions its offering as an alternative to relying on PKI, especially in OT, edge, and defense use cases given the abundance of devices with long lifecycles, air-gapped and remote systems with intermittent communications access, and resource-constrained or legacy and proprietary equipment that cannot support quantum-safe PKI. As an emerging technology, the battle against incumbents like PKI will be an uphill one. Areas remain where AKMSecure will not be able to viably supersede PKI’s supremacy (e.g., email security, code and software signing), while PKI vendors in the web browser segment are already innovating when it comes to reducing the complexity of quantum-safe PKI (e.g., via Merkle Tree certificates). Yet, with a laser-focus on solving operational and implementation issues where feasible, AKMSecure has the potential to disrupt PKI across enterprises (especially in the automotive and satellite markets), OT, and defense (e.g., securing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) like drones).

While technologies like that of Autonomous Key Management have appealability across the enterprise space, the defense and federal markets represent an excellent proving point to facilitate movement into the commercial markets, particularly in the context of mounting concerns around drone security and sovereignty, namely in the United States and Europe. On September 3, the Trump administration announced the imposition of a 100% tariff on imported thermal imaging or large (over 55 pounds) drones with levies of 25%, 15%, and 10% on smaller or “non-sensitive” (without thermal imaging capabilities) drones, notably those from a group of states (European Union (EU), Japan, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan), and British-manufactured drones, respectively. Given the use of thermal imaging outside defense applications for law enforcement and public safety, the absence of any risk-based analysis grounding the tariffs, lack of an economically viable support plan or supply chain to counter the current dependency on Chinese-manufactured drones from the administration, and reported investment from two of President Trump’s sons in U.S. drone vendors, it is not clear that supply chain and sovereignty concerns are what is really fueling the newest tariffs. Yet, whether the U.S. administration’s issues around drone supply chains are genuine or “Trumped-up” in the interests of protectionism, it is evident that drone security will be a major pillar within national defense strategies moving forward.

This is further illustrated by the announcement on September 2 of retaliatory diplomatic sanctions from the German government on Russia. Those measures follow the public attribution of an attempted attack near a German airport using drones. Importantly here, reports outline the use of “drone configurations,” condemning the attack as an exhibition of Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics.

Encryption-based attacks on UAVs or drones involve compromising, intercepting, or breaking the cryptographic protocols lying within, disrupting communication or tampering with stored data, serving espionage purposes to cause physical harm to people and systems. With hybrid attacks often falling in the grey zone, below the threshold of armed conflict, their application within modern conflict (and outside of it) is expected only to increase. Combatting the threat of encryption-based attacks via quantum-resilient algorithms, particularly where those algorithms are optimized for deployment in air-gapped, resource-constrained, or hard-to-access systems, is the necessary way forward, rendering emerging technologies in this sphere—from AKMSecure and others—a vital injection of innovation into the cryptographic market.