Federal agencies will increasingly seek out technology products that use quantum-resistant encryption, as cybersecurity leaders also eye ways to validate the cryptography used in critical systems. A code-breaking quantum computer holds the potential to break classical encryption methods, putting sensitive systems and communications at risk. And even though such a computer is not yet known to exist, organizations are also concerned that hackers could steal sensitive encrypted data today and decrypt it in the future. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released three primary PQC standards in recent years, with additional algorithms under consideration. Agencies and industry are now on the clock to begin the time consuming and costly process of migrating current systems to the new algorithms. “Now is the time to budget, to test, and to implement,” Will Loucks, senior director for intelligence in the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, said during an Aug. 26 panel discussion at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in North Bethesda, Md. “And that’s especially true for national security systems, including the commercial technologies and algorithms that support them,” Loucks continued. “But it’s also more generally true for federal networks and commercial systems more broadly.” Agencies received new PQC marching orders earlier this summer, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to transition “high value assets” and “high impact systems” to post-quantum cryptographic keys by Dec. 31, 2030, and PQC digital signatures by the end of 2031. Agencies will have to factor PQC upgrades into cloud migrations, software development lifecycles, and hardware refresh schedules, meaning the government will be reliant on industry partners to help with the transition. “What do we want from industry? I think from a government perspective, we want to see a clear path and a roadmap on how you’re getting