Thales and CEA to strengthen French post-quantum cybersecurity

As the quantum revolution forces a complete rethinking of cybersecurity foundations, Thales — a global high-tech leader in Defense, Aerospace, and Cyber & Digital — and the CEA, France’s public research body dedicated to scientific and technological sovereignty, have joined forces to evaluate and reinforce the next generation of post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms.

In 2025, the two partners launched GIVERNY, a joint project focused on assessing the attack resistance of two PQC signature schemes: HAWK, closely aligned with NIST’s forthcoming FN-DSA standard, and FAEST, related to the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard).

By combining their expertise, Thales and CEA cryptographers carried out joint development and cross-evaluation activities to analyse the robustness of these algorithms under real-world implementation conditions, mirroring those expected in future electronic products integrating post-quantum security.

This collaboration between two CESTIs recognised by ANSSI for their post-quantum cryptography expertise is unprecedented in France, marking a major milestone in preparing industry players for the transition to quantum-resilient systems.

The GIVERNY results come as ANSSI recently announced that all products placed on the market after 2030 must adopt post-quantum algorithms — and that sensitive, qualification-seeking products must comply as early as 2027.