NSA's SIGINT Enabling Project includes sabotaging cryptographic standards. NSA is now overtly paying for standardization of "ietf-tls-mlkem", a weakening of the much more sensible "ietf-tls-ecdhe-mlkem".
After objections started appearing, NSA's minions started switching from honest arguments along the lines of "NSA demands this so we should standardize it" to fake technical arguments. I have a chart of the debate. I also have a guide to recent talking points from proponents.
NSA lost a February 2026 ietf-tls-mlkem vote in the IETF TLS working group. However, they called another vote on 24 June 2026 and started packing the room. For example, a positive vote appeared on 25 June 2026 from NSA's Mike Jenkins, who has never shown up on the working-group mailing list before. This is allowed under IETF rules, which say that "There is no membership in the IETF" and that "Anyone can participate by signing up to a working group mailing list".
You can have your voice heard too. All you have to do is join the IETF TLS mailing list and send a message to the mailing list under the subject line "Re: [TLS] WG Last Call: draft-ietf-tls-mlkem-08 (Ends 2026-07-08)" saying that you do not support the publication of this document. But "Ends 2026-07-08" probably means that the chairs will discard objections received after some unspecified time on that date.
Please use your real name. I know this is bad from a privacy perspective, but the reality is that proponents will seize upon occasional pseudonyms as an excuse to ignore the entire opposition.
Please note that, even though they wrote "AGAIN!!!! Let’s stick to the consensus call, 'I support' or do 'I do not support' as was requested in the email that began this thread", they later revealed that they're planning to throw away any responses that they claim don't provide a "considered opinion". In any case, don't let them discourage you from speaking up: IETF's "51%" rule says that they can't proceed with 51% or less of the working group, and IETF's statement on "Consensus decision making" says that "a very large majority of those who care must agree".
There have been more than 70 opposition statements as of 8 July 2026. Here are links to some examples of different lengths: Christian Grothoff. Orr Dunkelman. Simon Josefsson. Yaakov Stein. Peter Gutmann. David Stainton. Stephan Neuhaus. Tanja Lange. Bertrand Jacquin.