Five years to fix your encryption

Dr Vikram Sharma

“Some of the basic technologies underlying e-commerce and secure information exchange today will be broken by a quantum computer at scale,” warns Dr Vikram Sharma, founder and CEO of QuintessenceLabs.

For boards and directors, this is not an abstract threat – it’s a clear governance risk with a defined horizon. “We don’t yet have such a quantum computer,” says Sharma, “but the trajectory and published roadmaps from the big players suggest that, by the end of this decade, this will be a risk that most enterprises should start thinking about carefully.”

Traditional encryption methods rely on the difficulty of certain mathematical problems – problems that would take classical computers an impractically long time to solve. But quantum computers, leveraging the unique properties of quantum mechanics, will be able to solve some of these problems exponentially faster.

“In the right conditions, a quantum computer could do in minutes what might take today’s supercomputers thousands of years,” Sharma says. “That’s why, even without large-scale quantum computers, organisations – particularly those holding sensitive data – need to plan their defences now.”

QuintessenceLabs operates at the intersection of quantum science and cybersecurity, helping organisations secure themselves today while preparing for the quantum-enabled future.

“Putting a firewall around your IT systems is no longer enough,” says Sharma. “We need multi-layered, defence-in-depth security, and one of the strongest measures you can implement is enterprise-scale encryption.”

Surprisingly, very few enterprises encrypt all their sensitive data, often because encryption key management is complex across diverse IT systems. QuintessenceLabs solves this by making it possible to manage encryption keys seamlessly, regardless of the hardware or software environment.

But the company’s mission goes further – providing a smooth path to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). “These are new classes of encryption mechanisms designed to withstand even quantum-enabled adversaries,” says Sharma. “Standards are already emerging. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology announced the first three PQC algorithms last year, and others will follow.”

Sharma notes many forward-thinking organisations, particularly in finance and government, have set goals to be quantum-resilient by 2030. “If you’re a large organisation, it can take three to five years to understand the problem, assess technology options, pilot solutions and integrate them. If you wait until the risk is imminent, you won’t have enough time to transition in a planned, structured manner.”

He recommends that boards begin by allocating modest resources for pilot projects and education. “It’s about building understanding, so you’re not starting from zero when action becomes urgent.”

Boards might wonder whether they’ll need to buy a quantum computer for their business. “It’s not going to be like that – at least not at first,” he says. “Early machines will be large, expensive and mostly accessed through the cloud, similar to today’s supercomputing resources.”

Some organisations may eventually run smaller quantum processors alongside classical systems, offloading specific workloads – just as GPUs handle graphics today. IBM already allows public access to a small-scale quantum computer in New York via its website, and similar services from Google and Amazon are also available.

Quantum computing could have transformative effects across:

• • Finance: Faster portfolio optimisation and fraud detection
  • Logistics: Smarter routing for deliveries – UPS estimates saving one mile per truck per day could add $50 million annually to its bottom line
  • Aviation: Optimised loading and routing for fuel savings and emissions reduction
  • Pharmaceuticals: Modelling molecular interactions for faster drug development
  • Disaster prediction: Quantum sensors with unprecedented accuracy for earthquake and tsunami detection

“These aren’t theoretical wish lists,” says Sharma. “They’re areas where quantum advantage could deliver measurable value in the coming years.”

Rather than competing for the spotlight, AI and quantum will likely reinforce each other. “AI thrives on data and computation,” Sharma says. “Quantum can turbocharge that. The two together could open possibilities we can’t even imagine yet.”

Directors don’t need to become quantum physicists. “It’s like driving a car – you don’t need to know how the engine works to drive effectively,” Sharma says. “But you do need to know where you want to go and how to use the capabilities available to you.”

For boards, that means understanding quantum’s use cases, identifying which ones could affect their organisation and partnering with experts who can help plan for both the opportunities and the risks.

Quantum technology is advancing quickly toward utility-scale computing – possible within the next five years. Its dual nature, as both a strategic opportunity and a cybersecurity risk, means it belongs firmly on the governance agenda.

“The organisations that start thinking about quantum now will be the ones that not only successfully manage the shift to this consequential technology – they will lead in unlocking the value it creates,” says Sharma.