Panel Discussion: the Trials and Tribulations of a PQC Transition (Q01a)
The migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) represents one of the most significant shifts in the recent history of applied cryptography. While standards bodies move toward finalizing requirements, enterprises, agencies, and hardware/software vendors are grappling with real-world adoption challenges: integrating large key sizes into constrained systems, enabling cryptographic agility in legacy infrastructures, managing certificate chains and device identities, and aligning timelines with requirements such as CNSSP-15, CNSA 2.0, and emerging international standards. This panel brings together voices from various experts to discuss how they are approaching the complexities of PQC readiness. Panelists will share first-hand perspectives on balancing compliance deadlines, interoperability with existing ecosystems, and the practical engineering trade-offs required for secure and timely migration.
Sample Questions
Many PQC deployments hinge on availability of hardware support (HSMs, TPMs, CPUs). How are your organizations mitigating the risks of these upstream dependencies while still preparing for compliance deadlines?
How do you balance the need for cryptographic agility with the desire for stable, long-term implementations?
What strategies are you using to integrate PQC into existing infrastructures (e.g., certificate hierarchies, VPN/IPsec, IoT devices) without breaking backward compatibility?
From your perspective, are regulatory drivers (e.g., CNSSP-15, EU CRA, NIST guidance) accelerating or complicating adoption? What role do you see governments playing in smoothing the transition?