ICTK Gears Up Security Chips for PQC Transition, Teams Up with Pukyong National University to Develop Engine Supporting Korea’s KpqC

• Since 2024, ICTK and Pukyong National University have developed RSA/ECC and ML-KEM/ML-DSA cryptographic engines; collaboration now expands to four joint projects
• Through 2028, the partnership will advance a scalable, programmable cryptographic engine supporting Korea’s KpqC

SEOUL, November 5, 2026 — ICTK (KOSDAQ: 456010, CEO Justine J. Lee), a quantum security fabless company, announced today that it will carry out two follow-up industry-academic collaboration projects with the research team of Professor Pil-Ju Choi at Pukyong National University. The projects focus on developing hardware engines for public-key cryptography and post-quantum cryptography (PQC).

The Security System Semiconductor Lab at Pukyong National University (led by Prof. Pil-Ju Choi) has been conducting joint research with ICTK on hardware implementations of public-key and post-quantum cryptography since September 2024. The team specializes in designing lightweight, low-power programmable cryptographic engines optimized for resource- and power-constrained environments.

Over the past two years, ICTK and the research team have completed two joint projects. In both projects, the research team led the cryptographic engine design, while ICTK defined design requirements, conducted security verification, and performed functional verification during the chip implementation phase. In the first project, the two parties developed a hardware cryptographic engine implementing RSA and ECC. In the second, they delivered an integrated engine supporting international PQC standards, ML-KEM (key encapsulation) and ML-DSA (digital signature), on a single hardware architecture. This integrated engine reduces the burden of building dedicated hardware for each algorithm and establishes a foundation for flexible cryptographic deployment.

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With two follow-up projects running through August 2028, the collaboration expands to four projects in total. The third project will enhance and maintain the performance and functionality of the previously developed engines. The fourth project aims to build a programmable PQC engine that integrates both global standards (ML-KEM and ML-DSA) and KpqC, Korea’s post-quantum cryptography standard, onto a single hardware platform.

ICTK, which is mass-producing PQC-enabled security chips, plans to incorporate these co-developed technologies to broaden its cryptographic agility and adapt to evolving post-quantum standards.

“With PQC set to be reflected in public-sector security assessments starting in 2027, and with both global standards and KpqC subject to verification, securing a programmable hardware foundation capable of replacing and expanding algorithms is critical,” an ICTK representative said. “Leveraging the engine technology built alongside Pukyong National University, we will continue to advance our security chips to support diverse cryptographic algorithms.”