No sooner has the industry grown accustomed to AI-powered cyberattacks than the next front is looming. ID Quantique, the Geneva-based quantum specialist, which has been part of the U.S. company IonQ since 2025, is demonstrating at it-sa in Nuremberg how companies should prepare to defend against attacks using quantum computers. Dr. Florian Fröwis’s message is clear: “Quantum security belongs in every serious cybersecurity policy.”
it-sa, which takes place from October 27 to 29, has designated post-quantum cryptography, alongside supply chain security, as one of its top topics. The background: Quantum computers pose a threat to the encryption methods on which digital security has relied for decades. What is considered secure today may no longer be secure tomorrow.
Two approaches, one goal
ID Quantique relies on a combination of two technologies. Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is based on mathematical problems for which no efficient quantum algorithms are currently known, unlike RSA or ECC, which the Shor algorithm can, in principle, break. Fröwis concedes, however: “PQC is quantum-secure from today’s perspective, but could prove to be breakable as quantum technology continues to advance.”
That is why he recommends Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) as a supplementary measure. In this method, keys are distributed via individual photons through fiber-optic cables or satellites. Security does not rely on mathematical complexity, but on physics: Any attempt to eavesdrop alters the quantum state and is immediately detected. In practice, QKD handles key distribution, while PQC handles authentication and digital signatures. According to Fröwis, for the financial sector, government agencies, and critical infrastructure, this combination is the only method known today that offers true security.
Today’s data, tomorrow’s problem
The issue takes on a sense of urgency due to a scenario known as “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later”: Encrypted data is already being intercepted and stored today so that it can be decrypted later using powerful quantum computers. Government agencies such as the U.S. NIST have been warning about this for years. For insurers, which retain health, contractual, and financial data for decades, this is not some abstract, distant possibility.
Fröwis puts it bluntly: “After the ‘mythical moment’ of AI attacks, the ‘quantum moment’ of data decryption by quantum computers is just around the corner.” It’s worth noting that a provider of quantum security naturally has a vested interest in this sense of urgency. Nevertheless, every risk management department should ask itself how long its own data needs to remain confidential.
ID Quantique at it-sa: Hall 7A, Booth 7A-300.
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