Gartner report: Postquantum Cryptography, The Time to Prepare Is Now!

Is your organization ready to face the quantum challenge?

The rise of quantum computing brings unparalleled opportunities but also significant risks. As conventional asymmetric cryptography becomes increasingly vulnerable, the imperative to migrate to quantum-safe cryptographic algorithms has never been more critical. Failure to do so could leave your application and data security compromised.

The Gartner report, "Postquantum Cryptography: The Time to Prepare Is Now", is a guide for security and risk management leaders aiming to safeguard their organizations against future quantum threats.

Key Insights from the report

Quantum computing will cause existing asymmetric cryptography to weaken as we approach the end of this decade, leading to its replacement with quantum-safe cryptography.Most IT organizations are not aware of the type of cryptography they are using — including which applications are using it, how it is used or who makes decisions about cryptography.New, quantum-safe algorithms have different performance metrics for standard operations like key generation and encryption/decryption times. Key/data sizes that need to be stored/processed may also be affected. Testing in applications that require specific performance characteristics will need to be a high priority. This will affect data retention and security policies.Upgrading cryptographic protocols in most enterprises takes several years and requires IT leaders to start immediately and provide the leadership necessary to deliver crypto transformation.

The report “Postquantum Cryptography: The Time to Prepare Is Now” explains guidance for planning and executing your transition to quantum-safe cryptography, including strategic planning assumptions such as “by 2029, advances in quantum computing will make conventional asymmetric cryptography unsafe to use”, practical recommendations for ensuring application and data security by building an inventory of cryptographic metadata and collaborating with vendors on quantum-safe plans, and comprehensive analysis of quantum-safe replacement algorithms and their impacts on your systems.