Encryption & Key Management , Leadership & Executive Communication , Security Operations

Making the Case to the Board for Post-Quantum Readiness

CIOs and CISOs need board support for post-quantum computing cryptography projects. But here's one key tip: Leave quantum physics out of your presentation.

"If you go into your board and you talk like a physicist, and you talk about entanglement and quantum gates and qubits, you're going to lose everyone, because everyone's going to fall asleep or think you're in an episode of Star Trek," said Francis Gorman, head of the Security and Resilience Center of Excellence at Bank of Ireland.

Directors don't need to understand how quantum computers work. They just need to know which business services and data could be exposed, how long the organization will need to reduce that risk, what the migration will cost and what should be funded first.

Monique Shivanandan, a Token board member and former group CISO and chief data and analytics officer at HSBC, made a similar point about artificial intelligence in a recent interview with ISMG.

"The board doesn't really need to know all the machinations of what you've done to get to where you were," she said. "They trust you. That's why you're in that role."