"Becoming Quantum Safe: Protect Your Business and Mitigate Risks with Post-Quantum Cryptography and Crypto-Agility"
Authors: Jai Singh Arun, Ray Harishankar, and Walid Rjaibi
Foreword by Whitfield Diffie, co- inventor of public key cryptography
Copyright © 2026 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial intelligence technologies or similar technologies.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada and the United Kingdom.
ISBNs: 9781394374328 (hardback), 9781394374342 (ePDF), 9781394374335 (ePub)
Introduction
Quantum computing often sounds like a concept pulled from the pages of science fiction—a futuristic technology decades away from impacting our daily lives. While the full potential of quantum machines is still on the horizon, the security threat they pose is not a distant problem. It is an urgent, present-day reality that is quietly undermining the security of our most sensitive information.
This threat operates on a simple, insidious principle known as "harvest now, decrypt later." While the digital locks forged in the last century still hold, adversaries are already pocketing the keys for a future heist. They are capturing and storing vast amounts of encrypted data—from government secrets to corporate intellectual property—with the full expectation of breaking the encryption once a powerful quantum computer is built.
This article cuts through the hype to reveal five surprising truths about the quantum threat and the monumental race to secure our digital world.
1. The Real Threat Isn’t a Decade Away—It’s Already Here
The most immediate danger from quantum computers isn't an active attack; it's a patient data heist known as "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" (HNDL). This strategy involves adversaries intercepting and storing encrypted data today, knowing that it's only a matter of time before a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) can break the codes that protect it.
This makes any data with long-term value immediately vulnerable—think of military secrets, intellectual property, financial records, and sensitive healthcare data that must remain secure for decades. This information is being siphoned off and stockpiled right now. This is a threat with no warning signs; there is neither a way to detect it nor a way to protect data that has already been exfiltrated. While the damage from its decryption won't be felt until a CRQC is available, the vulnerability exists today.
The core of the problem is that our current security infrastructure was built on the assumption that certain mathematical problems were too hard for classical computers to solve. As MIT professor and RSA co-inventor Ron Rivest noted, this creates a fundamental challenge.
“It’s very hard to secure a system that’s been built on the assumption that certain problems are hard, once those problems become easy.”
2. Quantum Computers Aren't "Faster" in the Way You Think
A common misconception is that quantum computers will be universally faster than the classical computers we use today. The reality is far more nuanced. Quantum computers will not replace classical machines for tasks like sending emails or creating spreadsheets. Their power is highly specialized, targeting specific types of complex problems.
The relationship between classical and quantum computing can be broken down into four categories of problems:
- Problems classical computers are best suited for. Simple tasks like multiplication are great examples where classical computers will remain superior.
- Problems classical computers cannot solve but quantum computers can. The factorization of very large integers—the mathematical foundation of most modern public-key encryption—is the prime example. This is the core of the quantum threat.
- Problems classical computers can solve, but quantum computers are much better at. Complex optimization problems, such as optimizing supply chains or financial portfolios, fall into this category.
- Problems that neither classical nor quantum computers can solve.
This distinction is critical. It focuses the quantum threat squarely on the algorithms that form the bedrock of cybersecurity. A CRQC won't make your laptop obsolete, but it will have the specific power to shatter the cryptographic shield that protects global finance, communications, and national security.
3. The "Fix" Isn't a Simple Software Update—It's a Monumental Task
Transitioning our digital world to quantum-safe systems is profoundly complex, far exceeding past upgrades. To put this in perspective, earlier cryptographic transitions, such as moving from Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1) to Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA-2), have taken anywhere from 7 to 10 years to complete. Cryptography isn't a single application you can update; it's a foundational utility woven deeply and often invisibly into the fabric of our technology.
The challenges are immense:
- Cryptography is everywhere. It is embedded in countless applications, hardware systems, and infrastructure components developed over decades.
- Organizations lack a complete inventory. Most enterprises do not have a comprehensive map of where and how all forms of cryptography are used across their systems, from web servers to third-party APIs.
- The entire supply chain is affected. The transition requires identifying and updating every single instance of vulnerable cryptography. This extends beyond an organization's own systems to include dependencies on vendors, partners, and the entire software supply chain.
This complexity is precisely why organizations cannot afford to wait. The process of discovery, planning, and migration will take years of meticulous effort. Starting now is a strategic necessity to ensure a secure transition before the threat fully materializes.
4. The Solution Is Being Built in Public—For Friends and Enemies Alike
In previous eras of cryptographic transition, nations and corporations worked in secret. The goal was to develop superior encryption for themselves, hoping their adversaries would fail to keep pace. The systems used by opposing entities were never intended to communicate with one another.
As Whitfield Diffie, co-inventor of public-key cryptography, points out, the internet changed everything. It is a global network "intended for communications between friends and enemies alike." This reality demands a fundamentally different approach to building the next generation of security.
The solution cannot be a secret weapon. It must be a public, global infrastructure upgrade. This is why organizations like the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been leading a transparent, international process to standardize new post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms. This effort has already culminated in the first suite of official standards—including algorithms like CRYSTALS-Kyber for key exchange and CRYSTALS-Dilithium for digital signatures—which are now ready for implementation. The goal is to create new, open standards that everyone can use and trust, ensuring the interoperability required for a secure global network.
5. The Ultimate Goal Isn't Just a New Lock—It's an Entirely New Kind of Key System
Facing a transition so monumental that it could span a decade, it becomes clear that a one-time fix is strategically insufficient. The true long-term goal, therefore, isn't just to replace today's algorithms but to build systems with "crypto-agility"—ensuring we never face a cryptographic crisis of this scale again.
Crypto-agility is the capability to swap out cryptographic algorithms and protocols without making significant, disruptive changes to a system's core infrastructure. It is about designing our technology so that future cryptographic transitions are simple configuration changes, not massive, multi-year engineering projects.
This is the ultimate objective because the quantum threat will not be the last cryptographic challenge we face. By building for crypto-agility, we are future-proofing our digital world. We are creating resilient systems that can adapt quickly to the next vulnerability, whatever it may be. It is a strategic shift from a one-time fix to a state of permanent readiness.
Conclusion
The quantum era is dawning, and while it promises revolutionary advancements, it also casts a long shadow over our digital security. The threat is not a distant hypothetical; it is an active, ongoing risk through "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks. The transition to a quantum-safe world is a monumental undertaking, but a clear, strategic path forward is emerging through public collaboration and a focus on long-term resilience.
The digital world is built on cryptographic promises made decades ago. With quantum computers on the horizon, the critical question every leader must ask is this: Is your organization prepared to make new promises for the future, or will you wait until the old ones are broken?
