PQSecure Collaborates with George Mason University on NIST Lightweight Cryptography Hardware Research

February 6, 2026 -- PQSecure Technologies collaborated with George Mason University (GMU) on a landmark peer-reviewed research publication titled “Lightweight Champions of the World: Side-Channel Resistant Open Hardware for Finalists in the NIST Lightweight Cryptography Standardization Process,” published in ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems.

This work represents the first coordinated, large-scale effort to design, implement, and evaluate side-channel-resistant open hardware for finalists in the NIST Lightweight Cryptography (LWC) standardization process. The collaboration combined GMU’s leadership in cryptographic hardware benchmarking with PQSecure’s expertise in side-channel-resilient implementations, evaluation platforms, and practical hardware security analysis

The study evaluated protected hardware implementations of nine out of ten NIST LWC finalists, confirming Ascon as the selected standard while highlighting strong alternatives such as Xoodyak, TinyJAMBU, and ISAP. The results provide critical insights for deploying lightweight cryptography securely in embedded, IoT, automotive, aerospace, and defense systems.