The field of secure communication and key exchange is moving towards innovative solutions that prioritize efficiency, security, and low power consumption. Researchers are exploring new approaches to detect information leaks and ensure unconditional security in key exchange schemes. One notable direction is the development of hybrid key exchange mechanisms that can securely transmit multiple session keys simultaneously, reducing computational and communication costs. Additionally, there is a growing interest in code-based cryptography and private information retrieval schemes that can protect user privacy in distributed data storage systems. Noteworthy papers include: An Efficient Hybrid Key Exchange Mechanism, which presents a novel code-based hybrid key-encapsulation mechanism that achieves computational individual security and reduces costs. CB-cPIR: Code-Based Computational Private Information Retrieval, which introduces a single-server code-based computational private information retrieval scheme that derives security from code-based cryptography and fixes vulnerabilities of previous schemes.