Digital PolicyCyber Threat

Post-Quantum Cryptography: The Migration Nobody Is Ready For

NIST has finalised post-quantum standards but enterprise migration timelines reveal a catastrophic gap between threat arrival and defensive readiness.

6 Jun 20261 min read

The Harvest Now, Decrypt Later Threat

Nation-state actors are actively collecting encrypted traffic for future decryption once cryptographically relevant quantum computers become available. Data with long confidentiality requirements — diplomatic communications, intelligence products, medical records — is already vulnerable.

2035

Estimated Q-Day

Earliest plausible date for cryptanalytic quantum capability

10-15yr

Migration timeline

Estimated time for full enterprise cryptographic migration

71%

Unprepared

Enterprises with no PQC migration plan (Gartner 2024)

Full analysis continues below

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