
Act now to meet enforceable quantum safe obligations across the US, EU, and UK by adopting post-quantum standards, ensuring cryptographic agility, and following four phases: discover, assess, migrate, govern.
From Shor's 1994 algorithm to the August 2024 NIST post-quantum cryptography standards (FIPS 203-205), this module explains the urgency and migration toward quantum-safe cryptography.
Dispel myths about quantum computing, explain its physical principles, and provide a precise map of vulnerable cryptosystems—RSA, ECC, Diffie-Hellman—and post-quantum defenses for security professionals.
Explore how superposition and the Hadamard gate enable quantum parallelism, while interference and Born's rule show how measurement yields speedups, with Grover's algorithm as an example.
Unpack how interference turns quantum superposition into reliable computation by amplifying correct paths and suppressing wrong ones, guiding Shor's and Grover's algorithms and their cryptographic implications.
Assess current quantum hardware, its noise and error rates, and the gap to fault-tolerant machines, using NISQ realities and surface-code overhead to frame cryptographic threats.
Understand how classical cryptography relies on hard problems like factorization and the discrete logarithm. Explore the trapdoor principle and why Shor's algorithm threatens RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and elliptic curve cryptography.
Explain how Shor's algorithm replaces classical hardness with polynomial-time factoring, breaking RSA, DSA, ECDSA, and elliptic-curve systems, exposing TLS, VPNs, code signing, and the public-key infrastructure to harvest-now risks.
Explore how Grover's algorithm delivers a quadratic speedup that halves symmetric-key security. Assess the impact on AES, SHA, and ChaCha20 and prescribe doubling key and hash sizes for post-quantum security.
Apply Mosca's theorem to quantify quantum risk for security leaders; map X, Y, Z to data retention, migration timelines, and quantum readiness to drive urgent post-quantum cryptography actions.
Explore how vpn and ssh, and the broader network, face quantum threats from Shor's algorithm, compromising dh, ecdh, and certificates, planning post-quantum cryptography across surface.
Examine how public key infrastructure underpins TLS, code signing, and email security, and how quantum attacks on RSA and ECDSA drive a staged migration to post‑quantum PKI with MLDSA.
Explore post-quantum cryptography and the four NIST standards—MLChem, MLDSA, SLHDSA, and FNDSA—for secure key exchange and signatures. Understand hybrid deployment and practical TLS, SSH, and PKI integration.
Translate quantum risk into executive terms to secure board authorization for a phased migration, aligning inventory, deadlines, and competitive framing with business outcomes.
Quantum computing is not a future problem. Governments have already signed enforceable mandates — NIST FIPS 203/204/205, NSA CNSA 2.0, EU DORA, NIS2 — with hard deadlines. Nation-state adversaries are already harvesting your encrypted traffic today, waiting for the day they can decrypt it. That day has a name: Q-Day.
This course gives security professionals the technical foundation and practical frameworks they need to understand, quantify, and act on the quantum threat — with zero physics or mathematics background required.
You will learn exactly how Shor's algorithm breaks RSA, ECDH, DSA, and every elliptic curve scheme in use today. You will learn why no key size increase protects you. You will learn how Grover's algorithm weakens AES-128 and SHA-256, and what the safe alternatives are right now.
You will master Mosca's Theorem — the risk framework used by CISOs and government agencies worldwide — and apply it to your own organisation to produce a scored, prioritised migration plan.
You will understand Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL): why data encrypted today under classical cryptography may already be sitting in an adversary's archive, and why this creates present-day compliance liability under GDPR Article 32, DORA, and NIS2.
You will map every vulnerable algorithm — TLS 1.3, IPsec, SSH, PKI, code signing, DNSSEC, S/MIME — to its quantum threat level, and understand exactly what breaks and what survives.
The course includes 7 supplementary papers in LaTeX for students who want the formal mathematics, 7 downloadable reference guides, section quizzes, and a capstone assessment with certificate of completion.
No prior quantum knowledge needed. If you manage, architect, or secure systems that rely on cryptography — this course is your mandate briefing.