The Harvest-Now, Decrypt-Later Threat
Much of the encryption securing the internet today relies on math that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could break. That machine does not exist yet — but adversaries can capture encrypted data now and decrypt it later once it does.
For data with a long shelf life — health records, financial contracts, state secrets — the risk is not theoretical or distant. It is a decision to make today.
New Standards, New Algorithms
Standards bodies have finalized the first post-quantum cryptographic algorithms designed to resist quantum attacks. Migrating to them is a significant, multi-year undertaking that touches protocols, libraries, hardware, and certificates.
The pragmatic path is crypto-agility: building systems that can swap algorithms without re-architecting, so the transition is an update rather than a rebuild.
Where to Start Now
The first step is inventory: knowing where cryptography lives across your systems and which data most needs long-term protection. From there, enterprises can prioritize high-risk systems and begin hybrid deployments that combine classical and post-quantum protection.
Starting early turns a looming deadline into a managed, deliberate migration.