User Privacy vs National Security

Tim Erlin June 3, 2025

The idea of encryption backdoors for law enforcement or government is not new. Governments around the world have been advocating...

Membership Required

You must be a member to access this content.

View Membership Levels

Already a member? Log in here

Latest Podcast

Reporter’s Notebook: What happened to ‘Q-Day’?

Lou Covey May 19, 2026

Time to dig into the RSAC Conference notes. It was only three years ago that vendors were warning of Q-day, the day quantum computers could break current encryption, filled the pages of technology publications and even general news outlets. Those warnings are much more muted this year. What happened?

Primarily, the work of NIST solved the issue in setting new standards for encryption. All the post-quantum computing companies, like PQShield and SandboxAQ, are offering encryption products that are more alike than they are different and all are doing good business providing tools and services. We seem to be more than ready for the dreaded Q-Day.

Then, again, the progress on creating an encryption-breaking quantum computer is maddeningly slow. The industry still insists 2029 is the Q day ETA, and it will break military-grade encryption in one week… on a single document. Assuming a nation state that has such a computer has stolen 20,000 encrypted documents, it would take 38 years to decrypt them all. But the number of stolen encrypted documents, although inestimable, is probably orders of magnitude higher. So reality mutes the projections of potential disaster.

Premium Membership Required

You must be a Premium member to access this content.

Join Now

Already a member? Log in here

Membership Required

More Cybersecurity? Register for free!