Understanding The Strategic Imperative for Enterprise-wide Post-Quantum Cybersecurity — QuSecure - July 30, 2025
Q&A with Rebecca Krauthamer: Building a Quantum-Safe Future
The long-predicted disruption of public-key encryption by quantum computing is no longer a distant theoretical concern — it’s an active and urgent risk-management challenge. While “Q-Day,” the moment a cryptographically relevant quantum computer can break today’s encryption protocols, may still be several years away, adversaries are already harvesting sensitive encrypted data to decrypt it later. Indeed, Executive Orders have recently come out of the White House requiring advancements in quantum readiness. This looming threat has forced governments and industries to confront a difficult reality: conventional cybersecurity architectures are not future-proof.
The response has come in the form of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and a new paradigm called crypto-agility — the ability to update encryption methods across enterprise networks dynamically, without costly overhauls. Rebecca Krauthamer, CEO and Co-Founder of QuSecure, leads one of the most advanced organizations in this emerging domain. Her firm’s platform, QuProtect™, enables rapid deployment of quantum-resistant encryption across complex, hybrid environments and helps organizations discover where they need the most help to get “quantum ready.”
In this Q&A, Krauthamer explains the strategic context of the quantum threat, operational readiness challenges, cost dynamics, and how crypto-agility can serve as both a security enabler and a source of long-term risk reduction. Her insights are grounded in both national defense experience and enterprise adoption, making this conversation essential for cybersecurity and IT leaders navigating the quantum era in both private and public sectors.
NOTE: The feature below has been organized into the strategic, operational, financial contexts that emerged in the interview.
Here is what she had to say:
STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT
BTR: Why is the quantum threat considered urgent if practical quantum computers haven’t yet arrived?
Krauthamer: Because the threat isn’t just about when quantum computers can break encryption — it’s about the fact that adversaries are already stealing encrypted data today with the intent to decrypt it later. This is known as the “harvest now, decrypt later” threat. If your data has long-term value — like healthcare records, classified information, or intellectual property — it’s already at risk. You can’t wait for Q-Day to act.
BTR: How should organizations think about prioritizing this risk?
Krauthamer: They should start with the data itself. What needs to be protected for three, five, or ten years? If you're responsible for data with a long lifespan, you should assume it’s a target. Boards, CISOs, and CIOs don’t need a degree in quantum mechanics — they just need to know where their critical data resides and how it’s secured. Unfortunately, most companies do not.
BTR: How is policy accelerating urgency around this issue?
Krauthamer: In the U.S., the urgency is being driven by formal mandates. In 2022, the White House issued National Security Memorandum 10 (NSM-10), which requires federal agencies to begin migration to post-quantum cryptography. NIST finalized its first set of PQC standards in 2024, and CISA has since released roadmaps encouraging adoption across the critical infrastructure sector. Other countries — Australia, the U.K., and South Korea — are doing the same. The global consensus is clear: this threat is real, and the timeline for discovery and compliance has already started.
OPERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
BTR: What makes quantum-resilient security hard to implement across enterprise environments?
Krauthamer: Traditional encryption upgrades have always been painful — you’re dealing with legacy systems, cloud environments, and vendor-specific infrastructure. The key is crypto-agility: You need to be able to swap out encryption algorithms across your entire network without having to rip and replace hardware or re-code applications. That’s what we’ve built into QuProtect — a zero-trust, service mesh architecture that layers over existing systems and enables algorithm updates with the push of a button.
BTR: How does QuSecure approach complexity in government or hybrid environments?
Krauthamer: We work across the OSI stack — from routers and internal networks to web applications and satellites. One of our core design principles is legacy compatibility. We’ve deployed in everything from aircraft communications to banking platforms, proving that crypto-agility is achievable even in highly regulated and technically diverse settings.
BTR: Can you share a specific use case?\
Krauthamer: One example is our work with the U.S. Air Force, where we’ve been focused on securing aircraft communications — particularly for long-life platforms like the B-52 bomber. These are systems that can’t be physically updated every time encryption changes, yet they transmit highly sensitive data. Our solution digitally overlays quantum-safe encryption on those communications, enabling long-term protection without hardware replacement. This same approach applies to satellites, where the cost of retrofitting is practically infeasible.
BTR: What does the implementation timeline typically look like?
Krauthamer: For many organizations, implementation takes days — not months. Once our platform is deployed, encryption policies and key exchanges can be updated dynamically. We’ve invested heavily in streamlining onboarding, integrating with identity and access management tools, and minimizing disruption to business operations. That’s a major departure from traditional cryptographic transitions, which can stretch on for years.
FINANCIAL & RISK OPTIMIZATION
BTR: What’s the economic case for adopting crypto-agility now instead of waiting?
Krauthamer: The cost of inaction is enormous. If your encrypted data is breached and eventually decrypted, you face regulatory, legal, reputational, and operational fallout. Traditional upgrade cycles can take years and millions of dollars in manual inventory and patching. Crypto-agility turns that into a software-driven process — it’s faster, cheaper, and repeatable. We’ve seen organizations reduce encryption upgrade efforts from years to hours.
BTR: How does this compare to past encryption upgrade cycles?
Krauthamer: Most people forget how difficult past transitions have been. I’ve worked with executives who had to go server by server, manually identifying where encryption lived and coordinating updates. Those efforts took years and left gaps in coverage. What we offer is a fully software-based, push-button upgrade capability. So when a new NIST-certified algorithm like Kyber becomes available, you can rotate to it across your network instantly — no re-coding, no waiting on vendors.
BTR: Are there revenue-generating implications as well?
Krauthamer: Absolutely. For telecoms and infrastructure providers, being quantum-safe is a differentiator. It creates a trust premium and allows them to offer enhanced security to customers. In that sense, it’s not just a defensive investment — it can drive competitive advantage and new value-added services. We're seeing this already in early pilot programs where post-quantum security is being marketed as a premium feature for enterprise customers.
BTR: How do risk leaders and compliance teams benefit?
Krauthamer: It gives them visibility and control. Through our central policy engine, they can define who’s allowed to communicate securely, where encryption is deployed, and when algorithms need to be updated. That’s hugely valuable in environments where data residency, export controls, and cyber insurance policies are evolving quickly. Quantum-safe infrastructure isn’t just about math — it’s about demonstrable governance.
TECHNOLOGICAL IMPLEMENTATION
BTR: What does technological deployment of post-quantum cryptography look like?
Krauthamer: It’s a SaaS model, layered on top of your existing network infrastructure. Our QuProtect platform includes a central policy engine for defining secure communication rules and a mesh of distributed agents that enforce post-quantum encryption. The system is designed to be invisible to end users, with no performance trade-offs or workflow disruptions. Whether it’s server-to-server, application-to-endpoint, or satellite-to-ground, the encryption and key exchanges happen automatically — all with quantum-resistant protocols under the hood.
BTR: How does automation — and AI — fit into this process?
Krauthamer: Discovery is one of the hardest parts. You need to know where encryption lives before you can upgrade it. We use intelligent discovery tools — including AI — to map encryption usage, prioritize risks, and automate remediation. Right now, that includes human-in-the-loop governance, but our vision is to make encryption lifecycle management fully automated, with crypto-agility as the default mode. AI also plays a role in alerting users when libraries or standards are deprecated — triggering updates across the environment with minimal friction.
BTR: What role does NIST’s standardization process play in all this?
Krauthamer: It’s foundational. The algorithms themselves — like CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium — were vetted through years of global testing led by NIST. Our job is to make those standards usable. Everything we deploy is NIST-compliant and ready for CISA’s migration timelines. For organizations following NSA’s Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite (CNSA 2.0), we ensure compatibility with federal and defense-grade protocols as well. The standards are solid — now the challenge is scaling them.
BTR: Can post-quantum security be applied incrementally, or is this an all-or-nothing initiative?
Krauthamer: It can absolutely be phased. Not all data is equally sensitive, and not all systems need to be migrated overnight. We encourage organizations to start with their highest-risk data — anything subject to regulatory scrutiny, long-term confidentiality needs, or geopolitical exposure. Once you’ve secured that layer, expanding becomes much easier. Crypto-agility is about creating a foundation you can build on continuously.
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