A Novel Hybrid Quantum-Crypto Standard to Enhance Security and Resilience in 6G-Enabled IoT Networks

One of the most significant threats that hinder the effective functioning of existing models and technologies in 6G networks, particularly within the realms of Industry 5.0, is the lack of privacy and security. Traditional cryptographic models that were once considered secure have proven to be vulnerable to an expanding range of threats, such as quantum attacks. This vulnerability results in the exposure of sensitive data to unauthorized breaches and compromises the integrity and overall functionality of the network. Access control mechanisms implemented up to this point could not ensure that security compromises are prevented as secure data sharing is facilitated effortlessly. As a result, attempts to access sensitive data without authorization are often made, leaving the networks vulnerable to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that have the potential to disrupt their operation. Considering these pervasive challenges, our article proposes an innovative hybrid protocol suite explicitly designed for 6G networks in Industry 5.0. Specifically, our approach integrates leading-edge technologies, such as nth-degree truncated polynomial ring unit encryption with supersingular isogeny Diffie–Hellman (NTRUEncrypt-SIDH) and key-policy attribute-based encryption (KP-ABE). It aims to address the vulnerabilities associated with traditional cryptographic models to ensure high confidentiality and authorized data sharing. Moreover, we implement modern DDoS mitigation techniques, such as rate limiting, traffic filtering, and adaptive routing, to enhance the resilience of the network and ensure that system operation remains uninterrupted. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model over existing standards. Notably, the hybrid protocol achieves encryption and decryption times of 1.8 s and 1.667 s per gigabyte (GB), respectively, with a key generation time of 2.857 s per GB, ensuring efficient performance even in resource-constrained environments. The system achieves a total computational overhead of 11.7 ms for KP-ABE combined with NTRUEncrypt-SIDH, outperforming other cryptographic combinations. In addition, the model exhibits enhanced scalability, flexibility, and security, offering robust defenses against quantum and classical threats while ensuring seamless user policy-based access control. These results underscore the proposed hybrid cryptosystem's potential as a transformative standard for the secure and efficient operation of 6G networks in Industry 5.0.