The coming shift to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) is not a distant, abstract threat—it is the single largest, most complex cryptographic migration in the history of cybersecurity. Major breakthroughs are being made with the technology. Google announced on October 22nd, “research that shows, for the first time in history, that a quantum computer can successfully run a verifiable algorithm on hardware, surpassing even the fastest classical supercomputers (13,000x faster).” It has the potential to disrupt every industry. Organizations must be ready to prepare now or pay later.
The application is where the encryption actually lives, and that's where the transition must start. A powerful-enough quantum computer can fundamentally break the foundational security algorithms that protect our applications and data today, such as AES, RSA, DH, and ECC.
This risk is not distant. Organizations that store sensitive data with a long shelf-life are currently vulnerable to “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” (HNDL) attacks. “A new Federal Reserve study warns that quantum computers could one day unlock the private history of Bitcoin and other blockchain networks, exposing transaction data once thought to be forever secure. The report says the risk is already active today as attackers quietly collect encrypted data, waiting for the moment when future quantum machines can break it.” (Quantum Insider)
The transition period is officially underway, and being Quantum-ready is also about to become a compliance requirement. Here's what you need to know about the current compliance landscape and the three essential steps your organization must take to secure your applications for a quantum-safe future.
The Quantum Threat to Application Security
The problem isn't just network perimeter security; the core of the quantum threat lies deep within the application security (AppSec) layer. Quantum-vulnerable encryption is notoriously hard to find because it’s hidden everywhere. This may look like:
- Deep Dependencies: Unsafe algorithms (like RSA and ECC) are often buried deep within custom code, configuration files, legacy frameworks, and third-party libraries that traditional scanners cannot reach. This makes it difficult to understand your true exposure.
An example of this could be your team uses a popular open source legacy framework that uses ECC for key generation.
- Dynamic Risk: Even if you think you've fixed an issue, misconfigurations, weak cipher negotiation, and downgrade attacks can silently reintroduce unsafe cryptography at runtime, an issue traditional scanners miss entirely.
An example of this is an older, non-critical service connects to your application; the server downgrades the connection to a quantum-vulnerable RSA key exchange to maintain backward compatibility.
- Complex Context: Identifying that a cryptography function is in use isn't enough; you need the execution context to determine if it needs replacement. Without this context, remediation planning becomes a slow, complex guessing game.
An example may be a traditional scanner can tell you there is an issue, but not the context in which this is used.
Compliance is Now Driving PQC Readiness
Key regulatory and standards bodies are reacting to the threat and are now mandating preparatory steps, transitioning PQC readiness from a "nice-to-have" best practice to a formal compliance requirement.
PCI DSS v4.0
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v4.0 introduced a crucial, future-dated requirement that directly addresses the quantum threat. After March 31, 2025, organizations must maintain an up-to-date, documented inventory of all cryptographic ciphers and protocols in use. They must also actively monitor industry trends (like NIST PQC updates) and develop a documented migration plan to respond to anticipated cryptographic obsolescence.
While PCI DSS v4.0 doesn't require you to use PQC yet, it makes awareness and planning a mandatory compliance first step.
NIST PQC Standards and Government Mandates
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) efforts form the bedrock for compliance frameworks. NIST has concluded its multi-year standardization process, selecting the first suite of PQC algorithms which are now being published as Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS).
NIST guidance is clear: quantum-vulnerable public-key algorithms like RSA and ECDSA are expected to be deprecated by 2030 and potentially disallowed by 2035.
The message is unified: the time for preparing the cryptographic foundation is now.
Three Steps to Prepare Applications for the PQC Migration
Preparing for the quantum threat is an effort best tackled in phases, ensuring you maximize your security posture while aligning with evolving standards.
Manual inventories and traditional scanners cannot keep pace with the hidden, dynamic nature of application cryptography. To confidently move from uncertainty to control, you need a solution that embeds security directly into the software. Contrast helps organizations achieve this critical step by:
- Inventory your quantum-unsafe algorithms across your environment: You can’t protect what you can’t see. It is critical to have a view of all quantum-unsafe algorithms in all of your applications and APIs. Build the list and keep it up to date as you migrate encryption methods.
- Contrast has the ability to discover quantum-unsafe algorithms across all applications and APIs at runtime to understand the true scope of risk. See all cryptography risks in a consolidated view across diverse languages and frameworks that deliver enterprise-wide resilience and audit readiness.
- Prioritize which applications are critical to your organization: It is important to identify which business-critical applications are impacted and make a plan of attack for how to address the risk.
- Contrast can capture execution context, including route information and full stack traces, revealing not only the algorithms that are in use, but also implementation details such as padding and feedback modes. This data reveals exactly where and how unsafe algorithms are used, enabling efficient remediation planning and prioritization, so you know where to start.
- Keep a pulse on the latest compliance measures that are being introduced: Set alerts so you know when updates are made to compliance frameworks that your organization must adhere to. This will ensure your business is able to stay aligned with emerging standards and quantum threat intelligence without constant manual updates or labor-intensive research.
- Contrast incorporates the latest developments in quantum cryptography, ensuring detection logic and recommendations reflect the most current global standards.
Quantum migration will define the next decade of security strategy. The organizations that succeed will be the ones that treat their applications, not their networks, as the center of cryptographic risk. By using runtime intelligence to build a complete inventory, prioritize high-impact fixes, and align with emerging standards, you can modernize your cryptography once, with confidence. The quantum era is coming fast, but with the right visibility and context, it doesn’t have to be chaotic. You can move with clarity instead of uncertainty and stay ahead of both compliance and attackers.
