Your Encryption Expires When Quantum Arrives.
Written By: AKATI Sekurity Insights Team | Cybersecurity Consulting & MSSP Experts
Reading Time: 4 minutes
What's Actually Happening: Right now, hackers are stealing encrypted data they can't read yet. They're storing it. Waiting. Because quantum computers—machines that break the mathematical puzzles protecting your secrets—are coming. When quantum computers arrive (estimates range from 5-15 years), every encrypted email, medical record, financial transaction, and trade secret stolen today becomes instantly readable. Intelligence agencies call this "harvest now, decrypt later." This isn't science fiction. It's a mathematical certainty forcing organizations to begin post-quantum cryptography migration now. Here's why you should care, even if you've never heard the word "encryption" before.
Let Us Tell You About the Secrets That Don't Expire
You probably think encryption is something technical people worry about. Fair. But here's what encryption actually protects: Every password you've ever typed, every credit card number you've ever entered online, every message you thought was private, every medical record in your doctor's system, every trade secret in every company database, and every classified document in every government agency. All of it—protected by mathematical puzzles that current computers can't solve in any reasonable timeframe. A normal computer trying to break modern encryption would take billions of years. So we're safe, right?
Wrong. Quantum computers don't play by the same rules. They exploit weird physics to try all possible solutions simultaneously instead of one at a time. What takes a regular computer billions of years, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could solve in hours or days. And here's the terrifying part: the clock's already ticking.
Nation-state intelligence agencies (China, Russia, US, others) are already stealing encrypted data they can't currently read. Not because they can read it today. Because they know they'll be able to read it tomorrow—or in five years, or ten years. They're essentially building libraries of encrypted secrets, waiting for quantum computers to become the decryption key. If your company's intellectual property was stolen and encrypted five years ago, and you thought "well, they can't read it anyway," you were wrong. They just couldn't read it yet.
The Math Problem That Protected Everything Until It Didn't
Let us explain encryption using a metaphor that won't make your eyes glaze over. Imagine we give you a phone book for New York City. We tell you to find the person whose phone number ends in 4242. Easy, right? Tedious, but possible. You flip through, checking numbers until you find it. Now imagine we give you a phone number ending in 4242 and tell you to find the matching name. Impossible if the book is sorted by number. You'd have to check every single entry.
Current encryption works like this—easy to encode, impossibly hard to decode without the key. The mathematical puzzles protecting your data (RSA and ECC encryption, if you care about names) rely on problems that are easy one direction, impossibly hard the reverse direction. Breaking them requires trying essentially every possible solution, which would take longer than the universe has existed.
Quantum computers change this equation fundamentally. They can effectively check all solutions simultaneously through a property called superposition. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor's algorithm (the mathematical approach that breaks current encryption) could factor large numbers—the core problem protecting most encrypted data—exponentially faster than any traditional computer.
We're not there yet. Current quantum computers are primitive, with high error rates and limited qubits (quantum bits). But progress is accelerating. Google, IBM, and others are building increasingly powerful quantum systems. Nobody knows exactly when quantum computers will be powerful enough to break current encryption, but estimates cluster around 10-20 years. Which means the migration needs to start now.
Why You Can't Wait Until Quantum Computers Actually Exist
Here's the problem with waiting: Data has a lifespan. Medical records need protection for decades. Trade secrets remain valuable for years. Financial records have legal retention requirements. If you encrypt sensitive data today using current encryption, and quantum computers arrive in 10 years, that data becomes readable to anyone who stored it.
Intelligence agencies understand this perfectly. They're harvesting encrypted data now, knowing it has a decryption expiration date. Your company's R&D secrets stolen today might be unreadable now but perfectly clear in 2035. By the time quantum computers can crack today's encryption, that data might still be competitively valuable, strategically important, or personally sensitive.
This is why the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) spent years running a competition to develop post-quantum cryptography algorithms—mathematical approaches that even quantum computers can't efficiently break. In 2024, NIST published the first post-quantum cryptography standards: ML-KEM (Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism), ML-DSA (Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm), and SLH-DSA (Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Algorithm).
These aren't science experiments. They're production-ready encryption algorithms resistant to both classical and quantum attacks. The question isn't whether to migrate. It's how fast you can do it without breaking everything.
The 5-Year Migration Plan That Should Have Started Yesterday
Organizations need a systematic approach to post-quantum migration because you can't just flip a switch. Here's the realistic roadmap:
| Timeline | Phase | Key Activities & Objectives |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | Cryptographic Inventory | Identify everywhere you use encryption. Every system that stores sensitive data, every communication channel, every authentication mechanism, every digital signature. Most organizations discover they use cryptography in far more places than they realized—databases, file systems, network protocols, applications, APIs, cloud services. Create a comprehensive inventory documenting current encryption algorithms, key lengths, and dependencies. |
| Year 2 | Risk Prioritization | Not all data needs quantum-resistant encryption immediately. Prioritize based on data sensitivity and lifespan. Data that needs protection beyond 10-15 years (medical records, long-term trade secrets, classified information) requires urgent migration. Data with shorter sensitivity timelines (credit card numbers valid for 3-5 years) can wait longer. Focus first on "harvest now, decrypt later" targets—data adversaries would steal today to decrypt later. |
| Year 3 | Hybrid Implementation | Begin deploying post-quantum algorithms alongside classical encryption in hybrid mode. This means using both traditional and quantum-resistant encryption simultaneously, protecting against both current and future threats. Start with new systems and data, gradually migrating existing systems. Test extensively because post-quantum algorithms have different performance characteristics—some require larger keys, more processing power, or more bandwidth. |
| Year 4 | Legacy System Migration | Address the hard problem—legacy systems that can't easily support new encryption. Some systems require hardware replacement. Others need complete application rewrites. This is expensive and disruptive, but unavoidable. Organizations that delay this phase are the ones still running vulnerable systems when quantum computers arrive. |
| Year 5 | Validation & Continuous Monitoring | Verify post-quantum encryption is actually working correctly, monitor for new vulnerabilities in post-quantum algorithms (cryptography is never perfectly secure), and maintain crypto-agility—the ability to swap encryption algorithms quickly if new attacks emerge. By year five, your organization should be predominantly protected against quantum threats, with a plan for complete migration within the following 2-3 years. |
What This Actually Means for Your Organization
The Quantum Clock Is Ticking
Hover over each section to explore why migration can't wait
ASEAN Region
Post-quantum cryptography migration aligns with regional regulations requiring data protection across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and other ASEAN markets.
United States
NIST's published standards create compliance expectations for federal agencies and regulated industries. Quantum-resistant encryption requirements expected in upcoming regulatory updates.
If you're an executive reading this thinking "that sounds expensive and complicated," you're right. Post-quantum migration will cost millions for large organizations, require extensive testing, and disrupt operations temporarily. But the alternative—waiting until quantum computers exist—means every secret you've ever encrypted becomes readable to adversaries who've been collecting your data for years.
If you're in healthcare, patient medical records encrypted today need protection for 50+ years. If you're in finance, transaction records need protection for decades. If you're in technology, intellectual property needs protection for years. If quantum computers arrive in 15 years and you haven't migrated, all that historical data becomes compromised retroactively.
For ASEAN organizations, post-quantum cryptography migration aligns with regional regulations requiring data protection. For US organizations, NIST's published standards create compliance expectations. Organizations in regulated industries should expect quantum-resistant encryption requirements in upcoming regulatory updates.
AKATI Sekurity: Preparing Organizations for the Post-Quantum Era
Post-quantum cryptography migration requires cryptographic expertise most organizations don't maintain internally. AKATI Sekurity's Cybersecurity Consulting services include post-quantum readiness assessments—comprehensive cryptographic inventory identifying everywhere you use encryption, risk-based prioritization determining what needs migration urgently, and practical migration roadmaps balancing security requirements with operational realities and budgets.
Our Security Posture Assessments evaluate your organization's vulnerability to "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks, helping prioritize data and systems most at risk. We help organizations implement hybrid cryptographic approaches using both classical and post-quantum algorithms during the transition period, ensuring protection against current and future threats.
For ASEAN organizations protecting long-term sensitive data, we provide guidance aligned with regional data protection requirements and emerging post-quantum standards. For US organizations, we help implement NIST post-quantum cryptography standards and prepare for regulatory requirements expected in coming years.
The harvest has already started. The decryption is coming. Contact AKATI Sekurity at hello@akati.com for more information.
About the Author: This article was written by AKATI Sekurity's cryptography and emerging threats specialists who help organizations prepare for post-quantum security requirements across financial services, healthcare, government, and technology sectors in ASEAN and North America.
Related Services: Cybersecurity Consulting | Security Posture Assessment | Compliance & Governance
Key Terms Explained:
Quantum Computing: Computers using quantum mechanics principles to solve certain problems exponentially faster than traditional computers
Post-Quantum Cryptography: Encryption algorithms designed to resist attacks from both classical and quantum computers
Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: Strategy of stealing encrypted data today to decrypt when quantum computers become available
Crypto-Agility: Ability to quickly change cryptographic algorithms in response to new threats
Hybrid Cryptography: Using both classical and quantum-resistant encryption simultaneously during migration
References:
NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization (2024)
"Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" Threat Analysis, NSA Cybersecurity Advisory
Quantum Computing Timeline Projections, Industry Analysis
