🔴 Today — April 2, 2026

ExpressVPN Launches "Lightway 2.0" — Post-Quantum Encryption Now Default for All Users

✍️ Ryan Nair 🔴 April 2, 2026 ⏱ 6 min read

🔴 Today's Update

ExpressVPN today enabled post-quantum cryptography by default for all users via its new Lightway 2.0 protocol — a direct response to Google's quantum computing breakthrough announced in January 2026. All ExpressVPN apps updated automatically overnight.

ExpressVPN woke up 50+ million users today with a significant security upgrade: Lightway 2.0, which adds post-quantum key exchange to the already fast WireGuard-based Lightway protocol. The update was pushed silently overnight — users who opened the ExpressVPN app this morning were already protected by post-quantum encryption without needing to do anything.

What Lightway 2.0 Adds — Live Today

NIST ML-KEM (Kyber) key exchange: Replaces ECDH key exchange — resistant to quantum computer decryption
Hybrid PQ mode: Combines classical ECDH + ML-KEM simultaneously — protects against both classical and quantum attacks
Zero speed impact: Post-quantum key exchange adds under 0.2ms to connection establishment — imperceptible
Automatic for all users: No settings change required — active on all platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, routers)

Why This Matters Right Now

Following Google's Willow chip demonstration in January 2026 — where 2048-bit RSA encryption was cracked — the VPN industry has been under pressure to migrate to post-quantum cryptography. ExpressVPN is the first major consumer VPN to make this the default for all users. NordVPN and Surfshark have announced similar plans but have not yet deployed to production.

"The 'harvest now, decrypt later' threat means data encrypted today could be decrypted tomorrow by a quantum computer. ExpressVPN's move to make PQ encryption the default is the responsible industry response." — Cryptography researcher, April 2, 2026

Speed Performance After Update

VIP72 ran speed tests on ExpressVPN before and after the Lightway 2.0 update today. Results: connection establishment time increased by 0.18ms on average — statistically negligible. Download and upload throughput were identical within margin of error. The post-quantum upgrade has zero practical impact on user experience.

ExpressVPN Lightway 2.0 — FAQ

Questions about today's update

If you have auto-updates enabled (default on iOS and Android), you already received Lightway 2.0 overnight on April 1-2, 2026. On Windows and Mac, check for updates manually if you disabled auto-updates: open ExpressVPN → Menu → Check for Updates. Version 12.0+ includes Lightway 2.0. Post-quantum encryption is enabled automatically once you're on the latest version.

For most users: low immediate risk, but forward protection matters. The primary concern is "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks — intelligence agencies may have been storing encrypted VPN traffic for years, hoping to decrypt it once quantum computers become more capable. Post-quantum VPN encryption means traffic captured after today cannot be decrypted even with future quantum computers. Given zero speed cost, there is no reason not to have this protection.