Profile
Accomplished cryptography specialist with over 20 years of experience architecting, implementing, and deploying cryptographic algorithms and protocols for a wide range of platforms. Expert in cryptographic software and embedded systems, with a strong record of delivering secure, high-performance solutions and working collaboratively with top professionals in the industry.
Education
Poznan University of Technology | Poznań, Poland
MSc in Mathematics | 2006AGH University of Science and Technology | Kraków, Poland
Computer System Architecture & Design | 2007
Interests
- Post-Quantum cryptography
- High performance cryptography
- Cryptographic implementations for resource constrained devices
- Network security protocols
Professional experience
PQShield
Staff Cryptography Architect
Oxford, UK
Dec 2019 - present
Developed multiple products providing FIPS 140-3 certified and CNSA 2.0 compliant post-quantum key exchange for protocols such as TLS v1.3. Led software implementation of cryptographic schemes, optimized memory and performance across diverse CPU architectures, and implemented security hardening against side-channel attacks.
Cloudflare
Cryptography Engineer
London, UK
Feb 2018 - Dec 2019
Deployed post-quantum cryptography in TLS on production servers using BoringSSL, collaborating with Google to advance CECPQ2 adoption. Co-authored CIRCL, Cloudflare’s high-performance cryptographic library, and contributed to the implementation and optimization of TLS 1.3.
Trustonic
Security Engineer
Cambridge, UK
May 2015 - Jan 2018
Contributed to the development of a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) based on ARM TrustZone technology. Responsible for implementing cryptographic components and performing security validation across multiple system modules.
Amadeus
Software Engineer
Sophia-Antipolis, France
Jun 2008 – May 2015
Responsible for maintaining and implementing various functionalities in the Amadeus core system security and communication framework (C++ based). Focusing mainly on security and stability of TLS connections, performance optimization, improvements to failure resilience of high-availability components.
Tieto, BenQ
Project Manager
Wrocław, Poland
Dec 2005 – May 2008
Started as a Software Engineer and grew to a manager position. I’ve been managing teams developing PC software tools for Nokia/Symbian based mobile phones. Products were used in Nokia’s customer care centres for device reparation as well as end-users for firmware update. I’ve built a team of 20 developers and testers located in Poland, the Czech Republic and China working on multiple software projects for Nokia.
Projects
Below I have outlined the project examples that truly spark my interest and enthusiasm for collaboration.
Original author, principal investigator and designer. A cryptographic library implementing post-quantum schemes together with everything needed to sit behind a TLS 1.3 stack as its cryptographic engine, with PQ/T hybrid key exchange as the focus. Led development end to end over five years, from concept to production: implemented the schemes in software, optimized memory and performance across multiple CPU architectures, and hardened the code against side-channel attacks.
CMVP validation of PQCryptoLib - single-handedly and from scratch: defined the module boundary and its approved and non-approved services, wrote the security policy, produced the algorithm test evidence and ran the CAVP submissions, and worked the module through the lab and the certification queue to completion as a Level 1 software module.
The ML-KEM wasn’t yet FIPS-approved function, hence most of the work was done by carefully constructing ML-KEM with P-256 (according t SP800-56Cr2), so that it fits within what the standard permits, and describing it in terms the lab and CMVP would accept. The result was the first validated module offering PQ/T hybrid key agreement with ML-KEM and ECDH/P-256.
Co-author of the IETF standard for PQ/T hybrid key exchange in TLS 1.3, combining a post-quantum KEM with elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDHE). It is what allows a FIPS-validated, cryptogrphic library such as PQCryptoLib to be used by any TLS implementation for post-quantum key agreement.
RFC is already deployed by major browsers (Chrome, Firefox) as well as cloud service providers (Cloudflare, Google, AWS).
Fork of the PQCryptoLib codebase redesigned for constrained devices, focsing on ARM profile-M MCUs, where the binding limit is RAM rather than throughput. Runs bare metal or under an RTOS in as little as 5 KB of RAM, with optional DPA protection alongside the timing and remote-attack hardening.
Covers ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SHA3, SHAKE, SLH-DSA and the stateful hash-based LMS (verification), for secure boot, firmware updates, attestation and provisioning. Algorithms are CAVP certified. The library is deployed on multiple embedded environments.
IETF draft Adapting Constrained Devices for Post-Quantum Cryptography. Guidance for putting PQC on constrained devices and Edge IoT nodes. Draft describes some ideas implemented in PQMicroLib. Co-authored with T.Reddy, D. Wing and B. Salter.
It is a collection of cryptographic primitives written in Go. The goal of this library is to be used as a tool for experimental deployment of cryptographic algorithms targeting Post-Quantum (PQ). Project is open-source and was co-inveted with Armando Faz-Hernández.
Kinibi TEE
Trustonic
I was part of the team implementing, Trustonic’s Trusted Execution Environment - Kinibi.
Publications
- Post-quantum hybrid ECDHE-MLKEM Key Agreement for TLSv1.3 |
P. Kampanakis, K. Kwiatkowski, D. Stebila, B. E. Westerbaan - NIST SP 1800-38C: Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography - Quantum Readiness |
W. Newhouse, M. Souppaya, J. Prat, R. Larrieu, R. Burns, W. Barker, J. Gray, M. Ounsworth, C. Viana, J. Gilbert, G. Scinta, C. Brown, H. Le Van Gong, P. Kampanakis, K. Kwiatkowski, E. Kim, J. Goodman, A. Hu, V. Krummel - An Efficient and Generic Construction for Signal’s Handshake (X3DH): Post-Quantum, State Leakage Secure, and Deniable |
Keitaro Hashimoto, Shuichi Katsumata, Kris Kwiatkowski, Thomas Prest - Scalable Ciphertext Compression Techniques for Post-Quantum KEMs with Applications |
Shuichi Katsumata, Kris Kwiatkowski, Federico Pintore, Thomas Prest - Measuring TLS key exchange with post-quantum KEM |
Adam Langley, Dave Levin, Kris Kwiatkowski, Alan Mislove, Nick Sullivan, Luke Valenta - The TLS Post-Quantum Experiment |
Kris Kwiatkowski, Luke Valenta - Towards Post-Quantum Cryptography in TLS |
Kris Kwiatkowski
Talks
- Post-Quantum Cryptography in Practice: Migration Strategies for Constrained and Embedded Systems |
London Crypto, Imperial College London | London, UK | Nov, 2025 - Post-Quantum Cryptography for IoT Edge |
IPSoC Days Silicon Valley | Santa Clara, USA | Apr, 2025 - Post-Quantum Cryptography for IoT Edge. Implementation tradeoffs and security pitfalls |
TPM.dev | Cambridge, UK | Sep, 2024 - PQC Implementations, Tradeoffs and Pitfalls
GlobalPlatform Workshop | Virtual | Feb, 2024 - Cryptographic interfaces for secure IoT devices |
International Cryptographic Module Conference (ICMC 2022) | Washington D.C., USA | Sep, 2022 - Implementing a FIPS-Certifiable Crypto Module for Post-Quantum TLS |
CryptoMod 2022 | Brussels, Belgium | May, 2021 - Report on IETF and ETSI activities around Post-Quantum systems |
GlobalPlatform Workshop | Virtual | Nov, 2021 - Post-Quantum cryptography for C++ developers |
WroC++ | Virtual | Nov, 2021 - Ciphertext Compression Techniques for Post-Quantum KEMs |
University of Waterloo | Virtual | Oct, 2020 - Measuring post-quantum TLS
International Cryptographic Module Conference (ICMC 2020) | Virtual | Sep, 2020 - Towards Post-Quantum Cryptography in TLS |
Workshop on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) | Ruhr-University, Germany | Dec, 2019
Volunteering
- CHES 2026 - Member of artifact review committee | [
] - CHES 2025 - Member of artifact review committee | [
] - CHES 2024 - Member of artifact review committee | [
] - PETS 2024 - Member of artifact review committee
- PETS 2023 - Member of artifact review committee
- CHES 2021 - Member of artifact review committee
- IETF 115 - …
- CARDIS 2020 - Additional reviewer
- COSADE 2020 - Additional reviewer
- 17th IMA International Conference on Cryptography and Coding, 2019 - Additional reviewer
- Technical reviewer for a book Demystifying Cryptography with OpenSSL 3.0 by Alexei Khlebnikov