Latest Document From Cloud Security Alliance Outlines Tasks Every Organization Should Be Performing Now to Prepare for Post-Quantum World

Paper reviews cybersecurity challenges and recommended steps to reduce risks likely to result from quantum information sciences

SEATTLE – Oct. 19, 2021 – The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, today released Practical Preparations for the Post-Quantum World, a two-part paper that examines the cybersecurity challenges and recommended steps needed to reduce the new risks likely to arise as a result of quantum information sciences. Part I offers a discussion of the various quantum threats requiring mitigation, while Part II provides an actionable, step-by-step blueprint for preparing for the post-quantum world.

CSA’s Quantum-Safe Security (QSS) Working Group drafted the paper to create awareness of the risks surrounding a post-quantum world and to share examples of the steps every organization should perform now to prepare themselves. By following the recommendations laid out in the paper, organizations can expect increased project efficiencies, decreased cybersecurity risk, and increased, long-term, crypto-agility.

“Most people — even IT workers — are unaware of the potential serious increase in cybersecurity risk that will exist in a post-quantum world. Most cybersecurity defenders are already overtasked with an abundance of defensive requirements that don’t involve even quantum computers and likely don’t have post-quantum mitigations and tasks as a priority,” said Roger Grimes, lead author.

The increasing power of quantum computers will likely bring about new threats and challenges, only some of which are known at this time. Chief among them are the likely weakening or complete compromise of many traditional forms of cryptography, including public key cryptography, asymmetric key exchange mechanisms, digital signatures, symmetric keys, and other cryptographic applications.

The post-quantum mitigation plan provided in this paper has five main stages: education, project team and plan implementation, conducting a data protection inventory, findings analysis, and mitigation implementation. Each stage requires the right blend of policies, technical controls, and education to provide the most efficient reduction in cybersecurity risk.

The Quantum-Safe Security (QSS) Working Group supports the quantum‐safe cryptography community in the development and deployment of a framework to protect data, whether in movement or at rest. Those interested in participating in future research and initiatives involving the group are invited to join.

Download Practical Preparations for the Post-Quantum World now.

About Cloud Security Alliance
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. CSA harnesses the subject matter expertise of industry practitioners, associations, governments, and its corporate and individual members to offer cloud security-specific research, education, training, certification, events, and products. CSA's activities, knowledge, and extensive network benefit the entire community impacted by cloud — from providers and customers to governments, entrepreneurs, and the assurance industry — and provide a forum through which different parties can work together to create and maintain a trusted cloud ecosystem. For further information, visit us at www.cloudsecurityalliance.org, and follow us on Twitter @cloudsa.