Latest news with #QDay
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Inside The Coming Quantum Crisis: Why CEOs Must Prepare For Q-Day Now
Tech giants, global governments, and infrastructure providers must work together to implement post-quantum cryptographic standards, ensure secure migration paths, and educate the leadership class about what's at stake. When John Parsons, CEO of AI-driven vehicle data company Click-Ins, talks about Q-Day—the hypothetical moment when quantum computers can crack today's digital encryption—he doesn't mince words. 'What makes Q-Day so terrifying,' he says, 'is that it could potentially mark the end of security as we know it.' In an age where businesses run on code and secrets travel across fiber optics, the idea that those secrets—whether government, corporate, or personal—could suddenly become public is chilling. But for Parsons, this is not science fiction. It's a looming technological and societal inflection point. Parsons describes Q-Day as a 'point of no return.' Classical encryption—currently safeguarding everything from nuclear codes to your bank account—would be rendered obsolete. A quantum machine with sufficient power could retroactively crack nearly every piece of encrypted data that wasn't future-proofed. And the implications are not just abstract. 'Imagine being mid-flight when air traffic control goes down—not because of a glitch, but because a quantum-enabled actor has hijacked the system. We've already seen outages where controllers lost contact with planes for 90 seconds. Stretch that to 90 minutes with bad actors in charge,' he warns. Worse still are the stakes in healthcare. 'We've seen real cases where ransomware attacks forced hospitals to reroute ambulances, leading to patient deaths. Now add quantum capabilities to those attackers.' Skeptics often draw comparisons between Q-Day fears and the Y2K bug panic. Parsons is quick to call that logic dangerously flawed. 'People forget Y2K was a non-event because half a trillion dollars and 400 million person-hours were invested to make sure it didn't become a catastrophe,' he says. 'This isn't a fire drill like Y2K. Q-Day is a skyscraper engulfed in flames. And the fire engines haven't even been dispatched.' The difference? Our current systems are exponentially more interconnected, and much of the infrastructure—especially encryption—is not quantum-resistant. Parsons believes confronting the post-quantum era will require a level of coordination unseen since the Y2K effort. 'This is a problem so massive, affecting so many layers of global society, that only a coordinated governmental, military, and business response can mitigate the consequences.' Tech giants, global governments, and infrastructure providers must work together to implement post-quantum cryptographic standards, ensure secure migration paths, and educate the leadership class about what's at stake. Unfortunately, many businesses remain unaware or dismissive of the threat. 'I see CTOs on LinkedIn suggesting Post Quantum Cryptography will be a silver bullet, and it's disheartening. These people are in leadership roles, but they're dangerously uninformed.' According to Parsons, awareness must precede action. The quantum threat isn't just a technical problem; it's a strategic risk. Failing to prepare is, in effect, gambling with proprietary data, customer trust, and long-term viability. Enterprise software providers like SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, and AWS sit at the heart of the global economy. SAP's customers alone generate 87% of total global commerce, for example. These providers must start now, bolstering their systems for quantum resistance and providing customers with migration paths. SAP is doing just that, according to SAP CEO Christian Klein who has been working with quantum computing companies to explore how the technology can be securely used in enterprise software environment. In this recent Investor's Business Daily article, Klein said the following about the promise of quantum computing when running complicated reports: "There are a lot of things coming together. But time-wise, we can definitely believe that simulations you would run today in a week, you can probably bring down to an hour. Give this technology a few more years, probably we will talk hours or minutes at a certain point of time." As for mitigation tools, Parsons sees promise in technologies like Quantum eMotion's Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNGs). Traditional encryption relies on pseudo-random number generators (PRNGs), which—even in post-quantum systems—can be vulnerable if seeded poorly. Quantum eMotion's QRNG2 tech, built on the laws of quantum mechanics rather than mathematical approximation, offers a truly random key base that even quantum computers can't reverse-engineer. He points to the Apple TV series Prime Target as a dramatized but relevant example of how vulnerable prime-number-based encryption is in the quantum era. 'Ironically, if QRNG2 were in use, the entire premise of the show would fall apart.' Parsons' call to action is clear: executives need to treat the quantum transition as an urgent strategic priority. 'If we wait until Q-Day to act, it'll be too late.' The good news? There is still time to act, but the window is narrowing. As quantum computing advances from the lab to the world stage, the organizations that prepare now will be tomorrow's leaders.
Globe and Mail
27-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Google's Quantum Breakthrough Could Break Encryption—Q-Day Is No Longer Sci-Fi
Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) just dropped a quantum bombshell. A new study from Google Quantum AI reveals that RSA-2048 encryption—a cornerstone of online security used by banks, email services, and government systems—could be broken in under a week using fewer than one million noisy qubits. That's a 95% reduction from previous estimates that called for 20 million qubits. Confident Investing Starts Here: No current quantum computer can pull this off yet, but the bar is now significantly lower. The system would require five days of nonstop quantum operation, ultra-fast surface code cycles, and near-perfect gate fidelity—technical challenges, yes, but ones that hardware roadmaps aim to solve by the early 2030s. In an earlier piece, we described Q-Day, the moment quantum computers can break today's encryption, as a looming threat, a digital Armageddon where banks get hacked, financial markets melt down, and encrypted records turn into open books overnight. That may have felt like sci-fi before. But Google's findings turn Q-Day from a 'Matrix-style' hypothetical into a 'Mission: Countdown' with a clear blueprint. Why It Matters for Investors This isn't just a cryptography update. It's a market-moving event in slow motion. If RSA encryption falls, it doesn't just affect spy agencies or gamers in basements. It strikes the core of digital trust. That means brokerages, fintech apps, banks, and trading platforms would face an existential crisis unless they transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) before quantum hardware catches up. Even though Q-Day isn't here yet, adversaries are already harvesting encrypted data to decrypt later. ' Harvest now, decrypt later ' isn't a conspiracy theory; it's a policy concern raised by both the U.S. and China. Who Gains from Post-Quantum Security? The biggest winners in this new landscape are cybersecurity firms specializing in quantum-resistant protocols and zero-trust architecture. Companies like CrowdStrike (CRWD), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), and Fortinet (FTNT) are likely to see a surge in demand as governments and corporations race to fortify their infrastructure. Meanwhile, quantum hardware players such as IBM (IBM), Quantinuum, and PsiQuantum just saw the target move from science fiction to an engineering problem. They now have a shot at real commercial traction if they can deliver million-qubit machines by the next decade. Financial institutions with foresight—names like JPMorgan (JPM) that have already dipped into quantum readiness—could be early stabilizers when panic sets in elsewhere. Preparing won't just be about defense—it'll be a brand advantage. Bear in mind, there will be losers too. Legacy tech firms stuck on outdated cryptographic standards could face lawsuits, customer flight, and even regulatory penalties. Cryptocurrencies are another big vulnerability. Many coins rely on traditional public-key encryption, and unless their foundations are upgraded, they could become worthless overnight in a post-Q-Day world. Also, governments or businesses that drag their feet past 2030 will risk learning the hard way that quantum speed waits for no one. The Comparison tool below highlights all the companies mentioned in this article, with one standout detail: both PANW and FTNT boast a perfect TipRanks Smart Score, underscoring the strong fundamentals behind these leading cybersecurity players. The Clock Is Ticking According to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), all vulnerable cryptographic systems should be deprecated after 2030 and disallowed after 2035. Not because quantum computers will definitely arrive by then, but because it's reckless to bet on slow progress. Google's study gives the world a wake-up call and hardware makers a specific goal. Meanwhile, investors should ask: Who's preparing—and who's pretending? As Tony Stark once said, 'You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play… but quantum computing might be.' Maybe he didn't say that exactly, but the point stands. The race is on, and encryption is the battlefield. TipRanks takeaway: Now's the time to check which companies are quantum-safe and which are living on borrowed time.
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Ensuring Financial Data Security In The Quantum Era
Financial market organizations are used to the idea of speculation. Buying undervalued assets to realize value from them at a later point is a well-established strategy. But – on the other side of a very dark mirror – another kind of speculation is stalking even well-established financial players. Bad actors are already exploring the next horizon of cyber-attacks with the goal of harvesting encrypted data. Today, the encryption is safe and the data is useless to the thieves. But they speculate that, armed at some point in the future with a 'cryptographically-relevant quantum computer (CRQC) – a quantum computer equipped with the right software – they will be able to break the encryption and gain access to the data, with devastating consequences. This point in time is often referred to as Q-Day. While quantum threats will target industries ranging from power utilities to transportation providers, we believe the financial sector will be near the top of the list of targets for threat actors. The potential gains from stealing money or creating mayhem in the markets will be too appealing to pass up. The good news is that Q-Day is not yet upon us, and there are actions that banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies can take now to prepare for the quantum security threats of the future. It is possible that the quantum era could simply look like business as we know it, with full continuity of operations and management of risks. For BFSI companies, data security is a significant challenge that gets more difficult with every passing day, even without the looming threat of a CRQC. Today's financial institutions are using more connected devices than ever. More devices means more potential backdoors or other vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Additionally, a recent report by the US Department of the Treasury found financial institutions are seeing an increase in more sophisticated, AI-powered phishing and social engineering attacks. Where sensitive financial data is stored and managed, and how it is transported for transactions, is also cause for concern. Years ago, financial institutions would have hosted their data workloads in their own on-premises data centers. Now, in a highly digitalized financial world, workloads are often distributed across multiple public and private cloud networks, meaning financial institutions have less visibility and control over the security of their data once it leaves their premises. While financial institutions can (and do) encrypt data to protect it as it travels between clouds, they must trust that their service agreements will hold true and cloud-based data repositories are fully secured to their specifications. Adding to this challenge are the increasingly stringent (but fragmented) regulatory requirements around data sovereignty and privacy, especially for enterprises with operations in multiple countries. It's not easy to determine the best way to comply with DORA, NIS2, OSFI B-13, CPS 230, NIST CSF 2.0 and the many other standards that are all very similar but different in their own ways. Even if an enterprise's headquarters isn't subject to a specific standard, that doesn't necessarily mean its satellite operations, or its globally distributed customer base aren't affected. That said, in today's rapidly evolving geopolitical climate, many BFSI companies want to avoid having their data travel through certain countries, preferring to keep everything — including the people and systems managing their data and devices — within their own jurisdictions. That's not always easy to do, especially with the industry's high levels of AI usage. The financial services sector is among the most mature when it comes to AI adoption, using the technology for a broad range of applications. For example, AI is being used for fraud detection to identify anomalies and suspicious activities in financial transactions. According to Mastercard, AI software can boost a bank's fraud detection rates by an average of 20% — and in some instances, by up to 300%. Additionally, AI-powered transaction monitoring can help cut down 'false positives' (i.e., when a legitimate transaction is mistakenly flagged as a fraudulent one) by more than 85%. But given that most banks don't have the infrastructure in place to build and train their own AI models, where is that AI analysis actually happening? How much sensitive customer data is now being stored and processed off-premises in an AI cloud? How secure are the AI models themselves? Questions like these are enough to keep CTOs, CISOs and risk management teams up at night right now. When AI and quantum computing eventually converge, we can assume BFSI companies will need to adapt even faster to an ever-evolving threat landscape. To protect their data in the AI and quantum era, BFSI companies can take the following actions, starting today: With Q-Day looming, the worst thing banks and other financial institutions can do is nothing. Companies can and must take action now to protect their financial applications, systems and digitalization investments. Of course, conducting infrastructure assessments and upgrading networks takes time as well as the right expertise and skills. But even though the word 'quantum' on its own can feel like a major technology leap, companies don't need to have quantum engineers on staff to set up the systems required to defend against future quantum cybersecurity threats. They also don't need to do this alone. Experienced IT network partners who have successfully deployed quantum-safe networks for financial institutions have the expertise to guide them through the process of architecting their networking and security technology evolution, every step of the way. The result? A solid, secure foundation to protect BFSI companies from today's threats and mitigate the risk of the threats still to come, so these institutions can thrive in the era of quantum computing and AI.
