Quantum-Safe Migration is a Team Sport — Why Your CISO Can’t Win Alone

The race to secure our digital future from quantum threats is no longer a distant concern — it’s a strategic priority. With the rise of quantum computing and the formalization of post-quantum cryptography standards, organizations must begin their quantum-safe migration journey today.

The looming quantum threat isn’t just a cybersecurity issue; it’s a business resilience challenge that demands cross-functional commitment.

But here’s the hard truth:

"The CISO alone cannot — and should not — fight this battle."

While the CISO may be the first to raise the flag and lead the transition, making an organization quantum-safe or quantum-resilient is not a just security project — it’s a cross-functional transformation. From engineering and product teams to compliance, operations, and the boardroom, every stakeholder has a role to play in making the organization quantum-safe and future-ready.

Let’s explore why.

1. Cryptography Is Embedded Everywhere

Cryptography powers authentication, confidentiality, integrity, and trust across nearly every digital asset in an organization. It is deeply embedded in:

• Applications and microservices

• Databases, APIs, and certificates

• Cloud and on-premise infrastructure

• Embedded systems and third-party software

Uarnveling these cryptographic dependencies — and replacing vulnerable algorithms like RSA, ECC, or DH — requires collaboration across business, development, and operations. No single team, including security, has full visibility.

2. Executive Sponsorship Is Essential

Quantum-safe migration is a strategic — not tactical — decision. It competes with other enterprise priorities for attention and funding.

• The CEO, CIO, and CTO must treat quantum resilience as a long-term investment in digital trust

• The Board must understand the systemic risk posed by quantum threat including “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks

• Enterprise Architects must embed post-quantum and crypto agility principles into modernization roadmaps

Without CXO-level support, even the most well-intentioned security programs risk underfunding and reach inertia.

3. Product Management and Development Define the Future

Product managers and developers shape what customers will use tomorrow. If post-quantum cryptography (PQC) isn’t part of the roadmap, you’re building with insecure foundations.

These teams must:

• Plan for crypto-agility and PQC integration

• Evaluate performance impacts of larger keys and signatures

• Collaborate with security and compliance

• Ensure backward compatibility and customer trust

Quantum-safe design must start at the product specification stage, not as a security afterthought.

4. Enterprise Architecture Must Lead the Transition

Enterprise Architects play a pivotal role in shaping the technical migration blueprint:

• Define crypto-agile patterns and hybrid models

• Identify cryptographic dependencies across systems

• Align PQC adoption with cloud, zero trust, and modernization/transformation initiatives

• Future-proof systems for upcoming cryptographic shifts

They connect business strategy to execution — essential for any quantum-safe effort.

5. Developers and DevSecOps Must Rewire the Code

Post-quantum migration isn’t just a patch — it involves rethinking assumptions and rewriting code.

• Discover cryptographic usage across codebases

• Replace outdated crypto like RSA and ECC

• Integrate PQC libraries (e.g., ML KEM/Kyber, ML DSA/Dilithium)

• Test for performance, compatibility, and fallback

DevSecOps must now support continuous cryptographic lifecycle management.

6. Legal, Compliance, and Risk Functions Ensure Alignment

Quantum risk intersects with regulatory, contractual, and reputational domains:

• Global standards and regulatory bodies have issued guidance

• Long-term sensitive data (financial, health, national security) must be protected for decades

• Contracts involving digital signatures and long-term confidentiality are at risk

Legal and compliance leaders must ensure the organization remains future-proof and audit-ready.

7. IT Infrastructure and Operations shape the Migration

Migration efforts ultimately take shape across infrastructure:

• Define policies for organization IT for post quantum or hybrid cryptography use

• Upgrade crypto libraries, modules, and hardware

• Replace vulnerable certificates and protocols along with KMS, HSM and PKI systems

• Deploy hybrid or post-quantum VPNs, TLS, SSH

• Monitor and remediate legacy crypto usage

IT need to ensure changes are made securely and with minimal disruption.

8. Data Governance Must Protect Long-Lived Assets

Many organizations store data that must remain confidential or verifiable for 10–30+ years:

• Financial records, healthcare data, IP, classified contracts

Data governance teams must:

• Classify and prioritize long-lived sensitive data

• Re-encrypt or re-sign using quantum safe cryptography

• Align retention policies with post-quantum strategies

Without this, you're only protecting the surface.

9. Learning & Development Builds Organizational Readiness

Quantum-safe migration introduces new concepts, algorithms, protocols, and workflows — most teams aren’t prepared.

Training must span:

• Executives and business leaders (strategic awareness)

• Developers and architects (hands-on PQC implementation)

• Security and infrastructure teams (governance and compliance)

Building internal capability is key to sustained progress.

10. Procurement and Vendor Management Drive External Alignment

Your quantum safety is only as strong as your vendor ecosystem.

• Ask your vendors to share their quantum-safe roadmaps

• Update RFPs to mandate crypto-agility and PQC readiness

• Flag vendors relying on deprecated crypto

This is critical to supply chain security in a post-quantum world.

What’s the Path Forward?

Quantum-safe migration is a strategic transformation — not just a tech upgrade. Here's how organizations can act:

• Form a cross-functional quantum task force

• Inventory cryptographic assets

• Perform quantum risk assessment

• Engage executives and boards with tailored messaging

• Train/upskill product, engineering, and DevSecOps teams

• Integrate crypto agility and quantum safety into architecture and roadmaps

• Update vendor and procurement requirements

• Align data governance with long-term crypto needs

• Monitor evolving standards and best practices

• Build a phased migration roadmap with measurable KPIs

• Promote a culture of crypto-readiness across the organization

Becoming quantum-safe is not a checkbox — it’s a journey. One that requires collaboration, commitment, and clarity across every function in the organization.

The CISO can lead, but only when everyone plays their part can true quantum resilience be achieved.

Ready to Begin? Start with AvinyaSQ QSM Ignite Starter Packs

Quantum-safe migration doesn’t have to be daunting. AvinyaSQ’s QSM Ignite Starter Packs are designed to help organizations take the first decisive steps toward quantum resilience — aligned with your current stage of readiness.

Each pack offers a structured combination of:

• Executive and board briefings tailored to your context

• Workshops and training for technical and functional teams

• Cryptographic discovery and inventory

• Quantum risk assessment and prioritization

• Strategic Roadmap and planning for migration

• PoCs/Pilots for PQC adoption

• Advisory support for standards, strategy, and roadmap planning

Achieving quantum safety is not about one big leap — it’s about coordinated, strategic steps taken together across the organization. The sooner you start, the more control you’ll have over costs, timelines, and disruption. That’s why we created the AvinyaSQ QSM Ignite Starter Pack — a fast, practical way to mobilize your teams, assess your current risks, and build a clear migration roadmap in a calibrated manner.

Whether you’re aiming to raise awareness, get executive buy-in, or kick off your first risk assessment, the Starter Pack helps you move from uncertainty to action — before the quantum clock runs out.

📩 Contact us - Let’s talk about how we can help your organization become quantum ready — from boardroom to codebase.