QLock

Recent advancements in quantum computing, especially Shor's algorithm, threaten asymmetric schemes like RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) and ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) by solving prime factorization and discrete logarithms in polynomial time. While Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) offer strong defenses, standalone PQC can still face implementation side-channel vulnerabilities, and traditional QKD lacks a direct link to endpoint hardware authentication. In this work, I propose QLock, a defense-in-depth hybrid quantum security model that combines physical optical security (BBM92 QKD with entangled photons) with algorithmic resilience (ML-KEM-768 PQC), lightweight authenticated encryption (Ascon-AEAD), and kernel-level hardware binding.