The 24-Month Exposure Gap: Why reducing quantum-related risk can’t wait for complete discovery.
Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) has become one of the biggest priorities facing security leaders. Governments are setting quantum migration deadlines, regulators are issuing guidance, and organizations are beginning the long process of understanding where cryptography exists across their environments. For many, the first step is cryptographic discovery: identifying where cryptography is used, understanding application dependencies, and planning how to migrate to quantum-resistant standards. It’s an essential exercise, but it’s also the start of a programme that can take years to complete. The challenge isn’t the discovery process itself. It’s what happens while it’s underway.
Planning doesn’t protect data from the quantum threat
Our latest research with Freeform Dynamics found that only 11% of organizations are confident they can achieve post-quantum readiness within expected timelines. It’s clear that organizations don’t underestimate the challenge, they understand just how difficult it will be. Cryptography is embedded across legacy applications, cloud platforms, business systems, third-party integrations, and critical infrastructure. Replacing or upgrading those environments isn’t something that can be completed in a few months, and few organizations can afford the disruption that large-scale infrastructure change would bring. But, while discovery projects, migration plans, and governance programmes continue, the data those systems process continues to move exactly as it does today. Customer information, financial transactions, operational data, and intellectual property continue to pass between applications, cloud environments, and external partners. If that data is intercepted today, a future migration programme won’t change the fact it has already left the organization. And, given the growing concern around “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, where encrypted information is collected today with the intention of decrypting it once quantum capabilities mature, that means your data is at even greater risk today.
The 24-month quantum exposure gap
Many organizations expect discovery and migration programmes to take 18 to 24 months before meaningful changes are introduced across the estate. That creates what we call the 24-Month Exposure Gap: the period between recognizing the need for PQC and actually starting to reudce the risk associated with it. Progress is being made. Budgets are being approved. Roadmaps are being built. But from the perspective of the data itself, very little has changed. Sensitive information continues to move across the same applications and infrastructure every day, often protected by cryptographic standards organizations already know they’ll need to replace. The longer that gap remains, the greater the opportunity for sensitive information to be intercepted, stored, and decrypted in the future. So, what if your organization could become quantum-safe in as little as a few weeks?
Rethinking where to start your PQC journey
One of the biggest misconceptions around PQC is that organizations need complete visibility across every cryptographic dependency before they can begin reducing risk. In reality, most already know where their greatest business risk sits. Critical payment systems, customer databases, identity platforms, operational technology, and core business applications are well understood. They are the systems that carry the greatest operational, financial, and regulatory impact if sensitive data is compromised. Rather than waiting for every application to be inventoried and modernized, organizations can begin by protecting those critical data flows now, while broader discovery and migration programmes continue. The conversation changes from “How quickly can we migrate everything?” to “How quickly can we reduce our highest areas of exposure to quantum?”
PQC readiness takes years. Reducing exposure doesn’t have to.
Enterprise-wide quantum migration will always be a long-term programme. It has to be. Cryptography is too deeply embedded across applications and infrastructure for it to happen any other way. Reducing quantum exposure is different. Organizations don’t need to wait for every application to be discovered, every dependency to be mapped, or every infrastructure project to be completed before they begin protecting sensitive data. By applying quantum-safe protection directly to data in motion, they can secure their highest-risk applications in weeks rather than waiting years for enterprise-wide transformation. That means discovery can continue. Migration can continue. Long-term PQC programmes can continue. But you can protect your critical data right from the start, without any infrastructure overhauls. This is where Certes takes a different approach. Rather than relying on application rewrites or infrastructure replacement, Certes applies quantum-safe data protection across existing legacy systems, hybrid infrastructure, cloud environments, and third-party connections. Organizations can begin reducing quantum-related exposure in weeks, not years, while building the cryptographic agility needed for the future. The organizations making the fastest progress are recognizing that PQC readiness and immediate risk reduction are not the same thing. One is a multi-year transformation programme. The other can begin today. The question is: where are you on your quantum journey?
