Q-Shield · post-quantum readiness

Which of your connections could be recorded today and read later?

A post-quantum readiness scanner for your servers, with a signed report your auditor can check.

Q-Shield finds your quantum-vulnerable encryption, ranks what to fix first, moves your most sensitive files onto post-quantum encryption now, and hands your auditor signed proof. The threat is harvest now, decrypt later: traffic recorded today can be read once a large quantum computer exists.

Three free design-partner slots. Sign-in is invite-only during the program.

A sealed letter frozen in a block of ice on a steel archive shelf

What it is · who it's for

Q-Shield is a post-quantum readiness scanner from EpochCore.

It checks a company's TLS, SSH, mail and database servers against NIST IR 8547 or the NSA's CNSA 2.0, ranks what to fix first, and produces a report signed with Ed25519 and ML-DSA-87 that an auditor can verify offline with OpenSSL.

Why Q-Shield: free checkers test your website. Enterprise crypto-inventory platforms cover whole estates, with a rollout to match. Q-Shield sits between them: it checks your mail, VPN, databases and SSH as well as the web, against NIST's dates or the NSA's CNSA 2.0, ranks fixes by how sensitive the data is, and hands your auditor a report signed twice that they can verify without us. How it compares →
Mid-market IT & compliance

NIST's dates, the PCI DSS crypto inventory, insurance questionnaires

The questions mid-market companies are asked: NIST's 2030 and 2035 dates, PCI DSS 4.0 requirement 12.3.3, cyber-insurance questionnaires.

The Mid-market profile →

Defense & federal suppliers

CNSA 2.0 from Jan 1, 2027

New national-security purchases need CNSA 2.0 from Jan 1, 2027, and EO 14412 has federal contractors meet NIST's post-quantum standards by Dec 31, 2030. The signed collector runs the same scan inside networks that won't let outside traffic in.

Run it inside your network →

Your auditor

A report they check without us

Two signatures, Ed25519 and ML-DSA-87, checked offline with OpenSSL against the keys EpochCore publishes, and a CBOM (CycloneDX 1.6) beside the PDF and the signed JSON.

How the proof works →

Two scan profiles

One scan, two rule books. Pick the one your buyers ask about.

Every scan is checked against Mid-market or CNSA 2.0, and Findings switches the same results between them. The same server can be fixed under one and open under the other.

Mid-marketNIST IR 8547CNSA 2.0NSA · national-security systems
The rulesNIST IR 8547 (final, October 2026): RSA and ECC deprecated after 2030, disallowed after 2035.The NSA's suite for national-security systems: ML-KEM-1024 key establishment and ML-DSA-87 signatures.
Made forThe questions mid-market companies are asked: NIST's dates, the PCI DSS 4.0 crypto inventory, cyber-insurance questionnaires.Defense suppliers and anyone selling into national-security work.
When2030 and 2035.New national-security purchases need it from Jan 1, 2027.
Key exchange
What passesAny post-quantum key exchange, hybrid or not.ML-KEM-1024, alone or with its P-384 hybrid.
The extra helloEach TLS host is asked whether it accepts the post-quantum hybrid X25519MLKEM768 offered alone.Each TLS host is also sent a CNSA-2.0-only hello: ML-KEM-1024 and its P-384 hybrid.
X25519MLKEM768Passes It protects against harvest now, decrypt later.Fails Unless the server also takes ML-KEM-1024 offered alone.
Certificates and the rest
CertificatesRSA and ECC certificates are due by the end of 2035.ML-DSA-87 certificates.
The rest of the suite—CNSA 2.0 also requires AES-256, SHA-384/512, and LMS/XMSS for code signing. The scan reads what a server shows from outside; the Plan notes any cipher below AES-256.
What we usually find: sites behind Cloudflare pass Mid-market and fail CNSA 2.0, because the edge doesn't offer ML-KEM-1024. The real exposure sits in mail, VPN, remote access and databases.

Q-Shield · Findings, same scan under each profileExample data

Scan of Nov 3, 2026 · 9 hosts

Findings
HostCheckServer would pickTraffic exposedMid-marketCNSA 2.0
www.alder.example:443Key exchangeX25519MLKEM768Nomeets the rulefails
mail.alder.example:587Key exchangeX25519Yesfailsfails
vpn.alder.example:443Key exchangeX25519Yesfailsfails
db.alder.example:5432Key exchangesecp256r1Yesfailsfails

www.alder.example: The server says: Cloudflare (from its Server header, "cloudflare"). It accepts X25519MLKEM768 offered alone and none of the CNSA 2.0 key exchanges.

What the scan finds

Six checks on every host. Each one ends in a verdict.

The scan reads what each server offers before any data moves, and records what it saw beside every verdict.

Key exchange

Three hellos per TLS host: one like a browser's, one post-quantum only, one CNSA 2.0 only. You see what a browser actually gets and what the server could offer.

SSH

The key exchange an up-to-date OpenSSH client would use, read before any key is exchanged.

Certificates

The key and signature algorithm (RSA, ECDSA, EdDSA). A quantum-breakable certificate lets someone impersonate the server later. TLS 1.2 RSA key transport counts as a key-exchange problem.

Distrusted certificate authorities

A certificate from an issuer browsers stopped trusting fails every profile, goes to the top of the plan, and is due the day of the scan.

Known-exploited web software

On HTTPS, the version in the Server and X-Powered-By headers is checked against CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list (Apache, OpenSSL, PHP, IIS). A match fails both profiles.

Mail and databases

SMTP (25, 587), IMAP (143), POP3 (110) and PostgreSQL (5432), each after asking the server to switch to TLS.

meets the rule
Passes the profile's rule.
fails
Fails the profile's rule today.
due
Allowed now; migrate by a date.
unknown
The check couldn't be read. Unknown never counts as a pass.

The product, page by page

From the first scan to the evidence your auditor checks.

Every screen below is Q-Shield's own page, shown with example data for a made-up company, Alder Biosciences.

01 · New scan

Set up a scan

Your hosts, your data, your rules

  • Pick hosts from your company's approved list, each from your signed scan consent.
  • Say what each host's traffic carries, so the plan can rank by how sensitive the data is and how long it must stay secret.
  • Choose Mid-market or CNSA 2.0.
  • Or upload results from your own run of the collector.
02 · Overview and Findings

The estate at a glance

Then every check, host by host

  • Overview answers the first question: "3 of 9 hosts recorded as exposed to harvest-now-decrypt-later."
  • Findings lists every check per host and port: what the server would pick, whether recorded traffic is exposed, and the verdict.
  • Each finding says who runs the host, as given when the scan was set up, and what the server itself says, such as Cloudflare in its Server header.
03 · Plan

What to fix first

Ranked, dated, and owned

  • Fixes are ranked by exposure, how sensitive the data is, how long it must stay secret, and whether the host faces the internet.
  • Each fix gets a date and, where the server says so, who runs it.
  • Grover note per cipher suite: AES-128 keeps 64 bits against Grover's search on paper, and whether it meets CNSA 2.0's AES-256 rule. The PDF adds the published qubit count (Grassl et al. 2016).
  • Quantum timeline per finding, in the signed JSON: the error-corrected qubits and Toffoli gates the best published attack needs for that key, with its source paper; which milestone of a published quantum hardware roadmap first reaches that size; and the year the recorded traffic must stay secret until (Mosca's inequality). It's informational and never changes the rank.
Technical detail: the quantum timeline in the signed JSON
"quantum_timeline": {
  "algorithm": "ECC-255",
  "logical_qubits": 2321,
  "toffoli": 1.27e11,
  "source": "Roetteler, Naehrig, Svore & Lauter 2017",
  "roadmap": "IBM Quantum roadmap (June 2025)",
  "beyond": "beyond its largest milestone (Blue Jay, 2033)",
  "secret_until": 2036
}
A letter closed with a single teal wax seal under a glass case
A single classical signature: fine today, open later.
A report closed with two intact teal wax seals
Q-Shield reports: signed twice, classical and post-quantum. Check them without us.
04 · Report

Evidence for your auditor

Signed once, checked by anyone

  • Signed once, with two signatures: Ed25519 and ML-DSA-87. Changing one word breaks both.
  • Downloads: the PDF (its appendix holds every file the check needs), the signed JSON, and a CBOM (CycloneDX 1.6).
  • Your auditor verifies it offline with OpenSSL: 3.0 or newer for Ed25519, 3.5 or newer for ML-DSA-87. The verifier is public and open source: github.com/EpochCore-LLC/qshield-verify. The keys are at epochcoreqcs.com/qshield-keys/.
  • Results you collected yourself are marked that way in the report.
  • Download a sample signed report: the Alder example, computed by Q-Shield's own code and signed with a demo key.
05 · Scans

History, and a weekly re-check

Email, and Slack if you want it

  • Every scan you've run, with its status and its report.
  • Turn on the weekly re-check for a finished scan: every Tuesday it re-scans the same hosts.
  • It emails you only when a verdict changes, and posts the same message to your Slack channel if you add a link.

Slack · the weekly check's messageExample data

06 · Storage

Post-quantum storage for the files that can't wait

Encrypted in your browser

  • Step 1: make or load your company's key file. Step 2: pick the scan and server the data came from, label it, choose the file, then Encrypt and upload.
  • Each file is encrypted in your browser before it leaves, with a key locked to your key file (ML-KEM-1024 together with X25519). EpochCore can't open it, and if the key file is lost, nobody can.
  • Files are checked before encryption; one hiding other content is refused.
  • Up to 256 MB per file, 5 GB per account.
  • Each upload gets a receipt signed by the storage service, and the scan's signed report lists the files moved.
  • Delete removes the encrypted parts and the wrapped key and keeps a deletion record; later reports list the file as deleted.
07 · Code

The encryption libraries your code depends on

The GitHub app

  • The GitHub app "EpochCore Q-Shield" only reads code, metadata and pull requests, and posts a commit status. It never changes code.
  • On every default-branch push and every pull request it reads the lock files and manifests (npm, PyPI, Cargo, Go, Maven, NuGet), or GitHub's dependency graph when a repository has none.
  • A pull request shows what it adds and removes. Files it can't read yet (Gradle, for one) make the check "unknown", and are named.
  • When a push adds a library a quantum computer breaks, it emails whoever connected the organization, and posts to Slack if set.

The app on GitHub →

08 · Download

Run Q-Shield inside your network

For networks that won't let outside traffic in

  • Mail, remote access and databases often can't be reached from outside. The collector is the same scanner as one signed file, qshield.tar, a Docker image you run inside your network.
  • Check its fingerprint and EpochCore's two signatures with OpenSSL, run it, upload the results, and get the same signed report.
  • This is the route for CNSA 2.0 and defense buyers who won't let outside traffic in.

Q-Shield · DownloadExample data

Download

Run Q-Shield inside your network
Both signatures verified against the published keys.Ed25519 and ML-DSA-87 · checked on this server just now
Download qshield.tar

Check it yourself

openssl dgst -sha256 qshield.tar
tail -c 2592 ml-dsa-87.pub.der | openssl dgst -sha256 -r | cut -c 1-16 | tr a-f A-F
09 · People and Look up a company

Who signs in, and what's public

No passwords

  • Sign-in is by invitation: EpochCore invites the people your consent names, and each signs in with an emailed 6-digit code. No passwords.
  • Look up a company reads public DNS and certificate logs for a work email or domain, names the providers, and lists the hosts. No connection is made to them. We run it before a first call, if you'd like one; signing up needs no call.
  • What a design partner gets and signs is public at /partner; the signed scan consent, withdrawal and opt-out at /consent.

Safe to run · check it yourself

It does what a browser does. The proof doesn't need us.

  • A first visit, nothing more. A few hellos, one handshake to read the certificate, and the front page's headers.
  • One at a time. A hosted scan checks one host and port at a time, one connection at a time; each attempt gives up after 5 seconds.
  • No login. It never logs in and reads nothing past the headers.
  • Only with your written OK. It touches a host of yours only with your company's signed written OK for that host. Withdraw a host at any time, or opt out entirely: /consent.
# the key ids: compare with epochcoreqcs.com/qshield-keys/
$ tail -c 32 ed25519.pub.der | openssl dgst -sha256 -r \
    | cut -c 1-16 | tr a-f A-F
$ tail -c 2592 ml-dsa-87.pub.der | openssl dgst -sha256 -r \
    | cut -c 1-16 | tr a-f A-F

# both signatures, offline
$ openssl pkeyutl -verify -pubin -keyform DER \
    -inkey ed25519.pub.der -rawin -in message.bin \
    -sigfile ed25519.sig
Signature Verified Successfully
$ openssl pkeyutl -verify -pubin -keyform DER \
    -inkey ml-dsa-87.pub.der -rawin -in message.bin \
    -sigfile ml-dsa-87.sig
Signature Verified Successfully

A public verifier

The code that checks a report is open source: github.com/EpochCore-LLC/qshield-verify.

Published keys

A report is valid only if both signatures verify against the keys at epochcoreqcs.com/qshield-keys/. A key carried inside a report is never trusted.

How we check our own scanner

Post-quantum results can be cross-checked against an independent TLS stack (Node with OpenSSL 3.5, tools/crosscheck_node.mjs). CI runs the probe against real CNSA-only, IMAP, POP3, PostgreSQL and LDAP test servers.

How long we keep results

We keep your scan results while you're a design partner and for 12 months after. Ask in writing and we delete them within 30 days.

Files in storage

Encrypted in your browser before they leave, with a key locked to your key file. EpochCore can't open them.

Audits of us

No SOC 2 report and no outside code review yet. The verifier is open source, and every report checks without us. Security contact: security.txt.

Where IBM quantum hardware is used

True random bytes from IBM's Heron processor. Each byte used once.

Q-Shield draws random bytes from IBM's Heron quantum processor (QRNG) and mixes them in at three places, each naming the IBM job. When the pool can't supply bytes, the record says the computer's own randomness was used instead. Scanning and ranking run on ordinary computers.

01 · Reports

Each signed report's post-quantum signature

The ML-DSA-87 signature mixes in Heron bytes, and the report names the IBM job.

02 · Storage

Each stored file's key

Heron bytes are mixed with your browser's own, for up to 20 uploads per company per day. The Storage page and the signed report name the job: File key: this browser's random bytes with IBM Heron randomness mixed in (job db4ouu4lf4us73c31ua0)

03 · The storage service

Its own ML-KEM-1024 identity key

It rotates every 24 hours, with a 1-hour grace window. Each new seed mixes in Heron bytes, the rotation record names the job, and the seed is wrapped by IBM Key Protect, in hardware security modules IBM documents as FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated.

The Heron pool's live status is public.Live pool status →

Ways to run it

Our server, your network, or your own terminal.

  1. HostedEpochCore's scan server, for the hosts you OK.
  2. Inside your networkThe signed collector from the Download page. The route for CNSA 2.0 and defense buyers who won't let outside traffic in.
  3. Command lineqshield probe, scan, audit and triage: the collector image runs them. Run yourself, triage can ask an AI model you host to re-order the top ten and explain each; it can't add findings or set deadlines. The hosted plan uses no model.
  4. NVIDIA AI WorkbenchQ-Shield is also an NVIDIA AI Workbench project. Design partners can be given access to the repository; cloned in Workbench, it builds the same container.
# the same commands the collector image runs
$ qshield probe www.alder.example
$ qshield scan smtp://mail.alder.example:587 \
    vpn.alder.example ssh://git.alder.example \
    > findings.json
$ qshield audit findings.json --profile cnsa2
$ qshield triage findings.json --estate estate.json

Why now

The dates are already set.

Mar 31, 2025

PCI DSS v4 · requirement 12.3.3

Card-handling companies must document and review the encryption they use at least once a year. It became mandatory with the other future-dated requirements.

PCI Security Standards Council →
Jun 22, 2026

US executive order 14412

Federal contractors are to meet NIST's post-quantum standards by Dec 31, 2030.

Federal Register (PDF) →
Oct 27, 2026

NIST IR 8547, final

RSA and elliptic-curve encryption, which almost everyone uses today, is deprecated after 2030 and disallowed after 2035.

NIST →
Jan 1, 2027

NSA CNSA 2.0

New purchases for US national-security systems must use the NSA's post-quantum suite.

NSA (PDF) →

Questions

What buyers ask first.

What is harvest now, decrypt later?

Recording encrypted traffic today, to read it once a large quantum computer exists. Traffic protected by a classical key exchange (RSA or elliptic curves) is exposed; traffic protected by a post-quantum or hybrid key exchange is not.

Does Q-Shield scan inside my network?

The hosted scan runs from EpochCore's scan server, so it reaches what the internet can reach. For mail, remote access and databases that only answer inside your network, run the signed collector (qshield.tar, a Docker image) yourself and upload its results. You get the same signed report, and it says the results were collected by you.

Will the scan disrupt my servers?

It does what a browser does on a first visit: a few TLS hellos, one handshake to read the certificate, and one request for the front page's headers. One host and port at a time, one connection at a time, and each attempt gives up after 5 seconds. It never logs in, and it scans only hosts your company has approved in writing.

What's the difference between NIST IR 8547 and CNSA 2.0?

NIST IR 8547 (the Mid-market profile) sets the dates for everyone: RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography deprecated after 2030 and disallowed after 2035, and any post-quantum key exchange passes. CNSA 2.0 is the NSA's stricter suite for national-security systems: ML-KEM-1024 and ML-DSA-87, required for new national-security purchases from Jan 1, 2027. The same scan is checked against both.

I'm behind Cloudflare. Do I pass?

Usually Mid-market, yes, and CNSA 2.0, no: Cloudflare's edge offers X25519MLKEM768 but not ML-KEM-1024. The bigger exposure is usually elsewhere: mail, VPN, remote access and databases.

Is this a certification?

No. The report is evidence for an auditor, not a certification, and it covers only the hosts it lists.

Do you use AI?

Not on the hosted plan: the order comes from Q-Shield's own scoring formula, and no AI model is used. If you run the command line yourself, triage can ask an AI model you host to re-order the top ten and explain each; it can't add findings or set deadlines.

How does my auditor verify the report?

Every signed PDF ends with the OpenSSL commands and the files the check needs: OpenSSL 3.0 or newer checks the Ed25519 signature, 3.5 or newer the ML-DSA-87 signature. The verifier is open source, and the keys are published at epochcoreqcs.com/qshield-keys/ and in the verifier's repository on GitHub. A key carried inside a report is never trusted.

What does it cost?

Design partners pay nothing, in exchange for a reference. After the program, a one-time report for up to 25 hosts is $2,500, and the weekly re-check is $300 to $500 a month.

Words on this page

Key exchange
How two machines agree on the key that encrypts their connection. It is the part a quantum computer would break to read recorded traffic.
Hybrid key exchange
A classical and a post-quantum key exchange combined, such as X25519MLKEM768, so the connection holds if either one does.
ML-KEM
NIST's post-quantum key-establishment standard (FIPS 203). ML-KEM-1024 is its strongest level, the one CNSA 2.0 requires.
ML-DSA
NIST's post-quantum signature standard (FIPS 204). ML-DSA-87 is its strongest level.
CNSA 2.0
The NSA's algorithm suite for US national-security systems.
CBOM
A cryptography bill of materials: a machine-readable list of the cryptography a scan found (CycloneDX 1.6).

Design partners

Three free design-partner slots.

Free, in exchange for a reference. A design partner gets the scan, the dated plan, the signed report, and the weekly re-check if they want it; Storage, the GitHub app and the in-network collector come with the same account. Sign-in is invite-only during the program.

After the program: $2,500 for a one-time report of up to 25 hosts, and $300 to $500 a month for the weekly re-check.

Your next step

  1. Read the consent form at /consent: the hosts we may scan, who signs for your company, and your right to withdraw any host.
  2. Sign it and send it to [email protected].
  3. We invite the people you name. They sign in with a code we email them, and run your first scan.
Q-Shield is built by EpochCore LLC in Huntersville, NC. Write to the founder, John Ryan, at [email protected].

Programs

NVIDIA Inception Program IBMBusiness Partner Google for Startups