Getting quantum-ready starts with crypto-agility
The quantum threat to cryptography is years away — but the data it will expose is being captured today. Preparation is a present-day task.
Large-scale quantum computers capable of breaking today’s public-key cryptography do not exist yet. But the deadline for acting is not the day they arrive — it is now. Adversaries can capture encrypted data today and decrypt it later, once the capability exists. For financial data with a long confidentiality lifetime, “harvest now, decrypt later” is a present-day risk.
The first step is knowing what you have
Most institutions cannot answer a deceptively simple question: where, exactly, is cryptography used across our estate, and which algorithms? Without that inventory, migration is guesswork.
So quantum-readiness starts unglamorously, with a cryptographic inventory — a map of every place keys, certificates and algorithms are used, from application code to protocols to hardware.
Crypto-agility over crypto-panic
The goal is not to rip out RSA overnight. It is crypto-agility: the ability to change cryptographic algorithms without re-architecting the systems that depend on them. Systems built with a clean separation between business logic and cryptographic primitives can adopt post-quantum algorithms as standards mature. Systems with cryptography hard-wired throughout cannot.
Standards bodies have now selected post-quantum algorithms, and migration guidance is maturing. The firms that invested early in crypto-agility will adopt them smoothly; the rest face expensive, risky retrofits.
A pragmatic path
Quantum-readiness is not a single project with an end date; it is a capability. Start with the inventory, prioritise long-lived and high-value data, build crypto-agility into new systems by default, and migrate deliberately. The threat is patient — but so should your preparation be.
Want a pragmatic view of your quantum exposure and a migration path? Get in touch.