House subcommittee hearing flags urgent need to harden federal systems for the quantum era

At a House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation hearing, industry and government experts warned that sufficiently powerful quantum computers will be able to break widely used encryption and urged the federal government to accelerate migration to post-quantum cryptography.

The witnesses told the subcommittee that the threat is not purely theoretical and recommended immediate steps: complete agency risk inventories, fund migration work, expand algorithm and application research, and develop a coordinated federal strategy led by the Office of the National Cyber Director. "A sufficiently advanced quantum computer will upend cryptographic security in every sector," said Chairwoman Mace in her opening remarks, noting the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act she helped pass in December 2022.

Why this matters: Current encryption protects financial systems, health records and defense communications. Multiple witnesses described a "harvest now, decrypt later" threat—adversaries copying encrypted data today to decrypt it once they possess quantum capability—and said that…