In a nutshell: Quantum computers pose a concrete threat to RSA and ECC-based encryption; CISOs should now focus on post-quantum cryptography and long-term migration plans.
Quantum computers are no longer a vision of the future, but a materializing risk to established encryption standards. CISOs must now engage with post-quantum cryptography to future-proof their infrastructures.
Technological development in quantum computing is advancing. While the exact point in time at which quantum computers can break existing encryption mechanisms remains disputed, security research has already focused on the practical consequences.
For security professionals, this means a fundamental reassessment of cryptographic architecture: asymmetric encryption methods such as RSA and elliptic curves, which are today’s standard, are considered vulnerable to quantum computers with sufficient computational power. This affects not only future communications, but potentially also encrypted data recorded today that remains sensitive long-term (harvest-now-decrypt-later scenarios).
The migration strategy to post-quantum cryptography becomes a necessity: standards such as NIST-certified post-quantum algorithms (e.g. ML-KEM, ML-DSA) must be integrated into existing infrastructures. This requires inventory of critical cryptographic processes, prioritization based on sensitivity and discontinuation risk, and gradual modernization of legacy systems.
Organizations with long-term data protection obligations or regulatory requirements should already begin analyzing their cryptographic assets. Integration is not a one-time project, but a multi-year transformation process.
Source: itwelt.at · Published 29 July 2026
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