The explosive growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has brought an array of resource-constrained devices to domains such as smart homes, industrial automation, and healthcare, raising substantial cybersecurity challenges. Lightweight wireless protocols, such as Thread, Zigbee, and Z-Wave, are integral to IoT connectivity, but the degree to which their embedded cryptographic mechanisms satisfy formal cybersecurity certification schemes remains underexplored. This work draws primarily on recent peer-reviewed publications and major conference proceedings to rigorously evaluate Thread, Zigbee, and Z-Wave against the Common Criteria (CC) Functional Requirements for Cryptography (FCS) as specified in CC:2022 and the EU cybersecurity certification scheme on Common Criteria (EUCC). The assessment focuses on essential CC cryptographic components, including key generation (FCS_CKM.1), secure key distribution (FCS_CKM.2), agreement protocols (FCS_CKM_EXT.7), cryptographic operations (FCS_COP.1), and random bit generators (FCS_RBG.1). The analysis reveals that Thread demonstrates the strongest alignment with CC requirements by leveraging Advanced Encryption Standard—Counter with CBC-MAC mode (AES-CCM) authenticated encryption and Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH)-based key exchange within a decentralized trust framework. Zigbee matches this cryptographic strength at the primitive level, but its dependency on a centralized Trust Center for key management complicates full compliance with key lifecycle and distribution controls. Z-Wave, especially through its S2 Security framework, improves by incorporating authenticated ECDH exchanges, though proprietary constraints and limited protocol transparency remain obstacles to independent assurance. This comparative study concludes that while all three protocols provide a baseline of robust cryptographic security, only Thread currently aligns with CC and EUCC certification schemes. Zigbee and Z-Wave will require additional protocol hardening and enhancement of cryptographic key lifecycle management to achieve comparable assurance levels. Ensuring conformance with formal cybersecurity standards is imperative for building trust and resilience across critical IoT infrastructures.