Post-Quantum Cryptography: Professor Kai London Urges Enterprises to Begin Migration Now

The quantum threat to current encryption is no longer a distant horizon, according to Professor Kai London, a Chief Information Security Officer and board cyber security advisor who counts post-quantum readiness among the issues he briefs boards on most often.

"NIST has finalised its post-quantum cryptography standards. That is the starting gun, not the finish line," says Professor London, Founder and CEO of Quantum AI Systems Security LLC. "Cryptographically relevant quantum computers may still be years away, but adversaries are harvesting encrypted data today to decrypt later. For long-lived secrets — intellectual property, health records, state data — the exposure is already real."

He urges enterprises to begin with a cryptographic inventory: knowing where and how encryption is used across the estate is the prerequisite for any migration plan. From there, he advises prioritising systems that protect data with a long confidentiality lifespan and engaging suppliers on their own post-quantum roadmaps.

Professor London cautions against treating this as a purely technical project. "Post-quantum migration is a multi-year governance programme. Boards need a line of sight into it, a budget behind it, and a sense of which assets they are protecting and for how long. Start the conversation now and it is manageable. Start it after the first credible quantum breakthrough and it is a crisis."

Author of The Invisible Airborne Perimeter and Trustquake, Professor London frames early action as a trust dividend: "The organisations that move first will be the ones their regulators, partners and customers continue to rely on."