All Q-Day, Y2Q Posts
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Q-Day
What Will Really Happen Once Q-Day Arrives – When Our Current Cryptography Is Broken?
As the world edges closer to the era of powerful quantum computers, experts warn of an approaching “Q-Day” (sometimes called Y2Q or the Quantum Apocalypse): the day a cryptographically relevant quantum computer can break our current encryption. Unlike the Y2K bug—which had a fixed deadline and was mostly defused before the clock struck midnight—Q-Day won’t announce itself with a clear date or time. We won’t…
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Q-Day
Q-Day Predictions: Anticipating the Arrival of CRQC
While CRQCs capable of breaking current public key encryption algorithms have not yet materialized, technological advancements are pushing us towards what is ominously dubbed 'Q-Day'—the day a CRQC becomes operational. Many experts believe that Q-Day, or Y2Q as it's sometimes called, is just around the corner, suggesting it could occur by 2030 or even sooner; some speculate it may already exist within secret government laboratories.
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Post-Quantum, PQC, Quantum Security
Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL) Risk
"Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" (HNDL), also known as "Store Now, Decrypt Later" (SNDL), is a concerning risk where adversaries collect encrypted data with the intent to decrypt it once quantum computing becomes capable of breaking current encryption methods. This is the quantum computing's ticking time bomb, with potential implications for every encrypted byte of data currently considered secure.
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Post-Quantum, PQC, Quantum Security
Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computers (CRQCs)
Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computers (CRQCs) represent a seismic shift on the horizon of cybersecurity. In this article, we’ve seen that CRQCs are defined by their ability to execute quantum algorithms (like Shor’s and Grover’s) at a scale that breaks the cryptographic primitives we rely on daily. While still likely years (if not a decade or more) away, their eventual arrival is not a question of…
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Quantum Computing
Neven’s Law: The Doubly Exponential Surge of Quantum Computing
In 2019, Google’s Quantum AI director Hartmut Neven noticed something remarkable: within a matter of months, the computing muscle of Google’s best quantum processors leapt so quickly that classical machines struggled to keep up. This observation gave birth to “Neven’s Law,” a proposed rule of thumb that quantum computing power is advancing at a doubly exponential rate – far outpacing the steady exponential progress of…
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Post-Quantum, PQC, Quantum Security
CRQC Readiness Index Proposal
This proposal outlines a composite, vendor‑neutral “CRQC Readiness” indicator. It intentionally avoids one‑number vanity metrics (like only counting qubits) and instead triangulates from three ingredients that actually matter for breaking today’s crypto: usable (logical) qubits, error‑tolerant algorithm depth, and sustained error‑corrected operations per second.
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Post-Quantum, PQC, Quantum Security
Understanding FIPS 140: A Cornerstone of Cryptographic Security
FIPS 140 (Federal Information Processing Standard 140) is a U.S. government computer security standard that specifies security requirements for cryptographic modules - the hardware or software components that perform encryption and other cryptographic functions. In simpler terms, FIPS 140 sets the ground rules for how encryption engines (in everything from software libraries to hardware appliances) must be built and tested to be considered secure. The…
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Q-Day
Q-Day (Y2Q) vs. Y2K
In the late 1990s, organizations worldwide poured time and money into exorcising the “millennium bug.” Y2K remediation was a global scramble. That massive effort succeeded: when January 1, 2000 hit, planes didn’t fall from the sky and power grids stayed lit. Ever since, Y2K has been held up as both a model of proactive risk management and, paradoxically, a punchline about overhyped tech doomsaying. Today,…
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