In the world of quantum physics, Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment imagines a cat in a box as simultaneously alive and dead. It illustrates the counterintuitive illustration of quantum superposition applied to a macroscopic system. We do not know the outcome until the box is opened and the system is observed. When I consider the impact quantum computing could have, it strikes me that enterprise cybersecurity faces a similar uncertainty: Are our encrypted corporate secrets and data secure for their required lifetime, or might some already be exposed to future decryption?
As with the cat, we cannot know for certain. That uncertainty may persist until ‘Q-Day’, the point at which a cryptographically relevant quantum computer could break much of today’s public-key cryptography. Firms that wait until Q-Day to act, though, are taking a major risk because adversaries may already be harvesting encrypted data for future decryption – a threat commonly described as “harvest now, decrypt later”. If long-life sensitive information such as intellectual property and R&D blueprints were exposed in this way, the regulatory fallout, loss of competitive advantage and reputational damage could be significant.
This is why the C-suite’s focus on long-term corporate resilience must include Q-Day; it constitutes an urgent priority for digital trust and enterprise risk. That means being proactive and enforcing rigorous data protection hygiene to limit exposure. Firms can reduce Q-Day risk by implementing strict access controls, enforcing data minimisation and mapping where long-term sensitive data resides.
