Quantum Computing: How to Address the National Security Risk

2. Quantum Cybersecurity: How to Implement Layered

Security 

 

s we have seen, it is extremely difficult to predict when a quantum computer 

able to hack into asymmetric encryption—and therefore stealthily hack into the 

majority of U.S. electronic data—will be realized. At the same time, hackers are 

harvesting sensitive data now with the understanding that they will be able to decrypt 

such information in only 10–20 years. 

But while quantum computing poses a grave national security threat, quantum 

cybersecurity harnesses the same principles of quantum physics to provide the 

solution.  

The term “quantum cybersecurity” is often used to encompass both quantum 

security’s software aspects (post-quantum cryptography) and hardware aspects 

(quantum cryptography).  

Today there are three important technologies underlying quantum cybersecurity 

solutions, and they can be implemented in a layered approach with a coherent 

timeline—one that mirrors the evolution of quantum computers.