Utimaco Says Quantum Crypto Dependency Knowledge Is Step One

Organizations with data requiring confidentiality for a decade or more are already at risk from “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, even before powerful quantum computers arrive. Utimaco, a provider of cybersecurity and compliance solutions specializing in hardware security modules, emphasizes that the critical step isn’t predicting when quantum computing will break encryption, but calculating how long it would take to replace it, the company says.

“Your clock started before the quantum computer,” the company asserts, framing quantum readiness as the sum of data lifetime and cryptography replacement time, a calculation many organizations haven’t begun. In 2024, the National Institute of Standards and Technology finalized its first post-quantum cryptography standards, signaling the urgency of migration.

Data Lifetime and Migration Timelines Define Quantum Risk

This exposure stems from the longevity of data compared to the projected timeline for cryptographically relevant quantum computing, a disparity many businesses have yet to quantify. Determining the timeframe for cryptographic replacement is equally critical, as migrating systems across a large enterprise is a multi-year undertaking. Calculating quantum readiness requires summing data lifetime with cryptography replacement time, a simple equation surprisingly absent from many security assessments.