The SafeLogic Blog

Much discussion has been happening recently around Artificial Intelligence (AI) safety and guardrails that need to be implemented as the world races towards adopting increasingly more advanced AI.   This conversation is certainly important and needs to be happening. However, another potentially disruptive technology that is emerging is quantum computing. To date, not nearly enough focus has been placed on safety in the quantum computing era. In his book “Hit Refresh,” Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella correctly identified quantum computing as an emerging technological innovation that has the potential to profoundly change our lives — putting quantum computing right alongside AI.

People often wonder when quantum computers will become practical and whether now is the right time to worry about their threat to public key cryptography. The questions often come down to:  Why are you working on this now? Why should we worry about it now? Here’s the thing. The world can go very quickly from those questions to a different question: Why haven’t you solved it yet?

No one knows how long it will take to produce a cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) or even how we will know precisely when that happens. A quantum leap in the development of that technology (no pun intended) could produce such a computer much faster than anticipated. What we do know for sure is that PQC migration will be a challenging, expensive, and lengthy process. So, the time to start planning for it is now.

Here at SafeLogic, we are not waiting; instead, we are trying to do our part to lead the way in helping the world migrate to PQC. In addition to adding PQC support to our own cryptographic software, we are also working with other private sector organizations, NIST, and the government to help the world plan for PQC migration. Here are two examples of this.

SafeLogic has been participating in NIST’s NCCoE (National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence) PQC Migration Project. Recently, NCCoE asked us to lead the PQC Migration Risk Management and Prioritization Workstream. This work is an essential area of research because quantum-vulnerable cryptography is ubiquitous, and it will be necessary to figure out how to prioritize PQC migration efforts.

As another example, on January 26th, SafeLogic was honored to attend a PQC Migration roundtable at the White House hosted by the Federal CIO and Federal CISO. At the event, SafeLogic contributed to the discussion, responding to various questions posed by the White House on how to best prioritize and facilitate PQC migration. 

Update: The White House has issued a readout on the PQC Migration roundtable.  Read it here.

SafeLogic is proud to have the opportunity to help lead the way in adopting PQC. We look forward to enabling a smooth PQC migration journey for our customers while contributing to the broader body of knowledge on this vital topic.