Modern encryption protects almost everything online. A powerful quantum computer could one day break it, which means the world must switch to quantum-safe encryption, a systemic transition where the last one lagging becomes the weakest link.
And that’s where the new QSC Atlas comes in, which aims to inform migrating organisations on how to navigate the quantum-safe transition across many fragmented governance regimes.
Most countries have adopted the US’ NIST standards; a few contextualise them, choosing different key sizes or running their own sovereign standards process. Coordination has happened through two initiatives, with a European roadmap and a NIST-aligned bloc composed mainly of the ‘Five-Eyes’ alliance.
The clocks are now explicit, as the EU wants inventories by 2026 and critical infrastructure quantum-safe by 2030, and China, through a February 2025 call, is standardising its own algorithms that won’t be interoperable with NIST’s. Only a handful of countries have genuinely begun to move beyond western countries, and against a potential risk this size, the case for global cooperation and alignment is solid.
The newly-developed Atlas is an open dataset that maps how far each country has got in its quest to become quantum-safe, which approach it has taken, and how ready it is. It turns a scattered picture into a guide, where duties are hard/soft law, where hybrids are required, and which deadline is binding. Whether for a multinational effort aligning several regimes or a public institution building from a low base, the map will serve as a solid foundation.
The Atlas is maintained within the Cybersecurity@CEPS Initiative at CEPS.
