Microsoft Urges Threat Modeling to Prepare for Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration

Key Takeaways:

• Threat modeling can help organizations discover undocumented cryptographic dependencies.
• Microsoft recommends TLS 1.3 as a foundation for post-quantum cryptography adoption.
• Businesses should evaluate crypto-agility and prepare to adopt ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and stronger encryption standards.

Microsoft is urging organizations to use threat modeling to discover cryptographic dependencies that could become vulnerable as quantum computing advances. The company emphasized that identifying these risks early can help businesses prepare for the shift to quantum-resistant security and avoid costly disruptions during the transition.

One of the biggest challenges in transitioning to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is that many organizations lack a complete understanding of how cryptography is used across their systems. Cryptographic functions may be embedded in operating systems, third-party software, cloud services, hardware, or custom applications, which makes them difficult to identify and assess. Microsoft notes that replacing vulnerable algorithms with quantum-resistant alternatives requires organizations to discover these dependencies, evaluate their risks, and determine how to migrate them without disrupting existing operations.