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The nation is currently unprepared for the cascading impacts of the post-quantum cryptography (PQC) era. As quantum computers mature, they will eventually become powerful enough to break the mathematical foundations of today’s public-key cryptography. This presents an immediate threat due to “harvest now, decrypt later” tactics, where sensitive encrypted data is stolen and stored today, so it can be decrypted in the future. Despite broad agreement on migration standards and the strategic approach to transition to PQC by 2035, the proliferation of playbooks can be challenging to sift through. And in the unlikely but highly dangerous case of a cheap, commercially available quantum computer, there are no emergency resources available. This situation puts our national economy and individual businesses at even more risk.
The solution
Aspen Digital’s Preparing for Q-Day project will equip stakeholders across sectors with the necessary knowledge and frameworks to actively navigate this digital transition. Rather than sounding false alarms, this effort outlines the critical business case needed to protect intellectual property and ensure public trust into the 2030s and beyond. We will drive rigorous cross-sector dialogue, map critical dependencies, synthesize existing migration playbooks, and deliver a first-of-its-kind resource for emergency planning in a “break glass” scenario.
We are grateful to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for making this work possible.
Our Insights
Check out our insights on post-quantum cryptography acceleration.
Countdown to Q-Day: Preparing for the Next Technological Transition
Rapid advancements in quantum computing promise to seismically change what we know about online security. Governments, businesses, and other industries are racing to prepare for “Q-Day,” when quantum computers are powerful enough to break encryption that most of the world has relied on for digital security going back decades. This blog explores how Aspen Digital…
