Quantum Security, Quantum Cryptography

Ex-CIA Officer Blair Joins QuSecure Amid Agency Quantum Readiness Push

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June 19, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

QuSecure has added a highly decorated intelligence veteran to its advisory board as federal agencies begin a critical shift in cryptographic security. Eman Blair, former CIA Chief Digital and Innovation Officer and recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal after over twenty years of service, joins QuSecure as the government moves from planning to execution on post-quantum cryptography (PQC) migration. This transition is driven by NIST’s standardization of post-quantum algorithms and federal directives like CNSA 2.0, which mandates quantum readiness. “The institutions I served and the systems I helped build are exactly what adversaries with quantum capabilities will target,” said Blair, Former CIA Senior Executive. “QuSecure is focused on making post-quantum protection operational for the organizations that need it most, and that is why I joined their Federal Advisory Board.”

Eman Blair Joins QuSecure Amidst Federal PQC Migration

The addition of Eman Blair to QuSecure’s Federal Advisory Board arrives as United States federal agencies are rapidly shifting focus from post-quantum cryptography planning to active implementation, driven by concrete directives and standardized algorithms. Blair’s arrival signifies a recognition of the escalating urgency surrounding quantum-resistant security measures within critical infrastructure. Having earned the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal during a twenty-year tenure at the CIA, Blair brings a uniquely qualified perspective to QuSecure, informed by decades of experience securing complex government systems. Her background encompasses leadership roles in data, cyber defense, and digital innovation, including positions as Chief Data Officer and Chief of Digital Innovation for Europe, providing her with deep insight into the challenges of large-scale technology modernization.

This transition from theoretical planning to practical execution is directly linked to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) recent standardization of post-quantum algorithms and the subsequent implementation of CNSA 2.0. The CNSA 2.0 directive mandates federal agencies achieve quantum readiness, creating a clear timeline and intensifying pressure to address cryptographic vulnerabilities. Blair’s experience managing mission-critical systems at scale is particularly valuable as agencies grapple with the complexities of updating cryptographic infrastructure while maintaining operational continuity. Blair herself acknowledges the evolving threat landscape, emphasizing the imminent danger posed by quantum computing capabilities. “During my career at the CIA, I watched the quantum threat move from theoretical to near-term,” she stated.

QuSecure’s QuProtect R3 platform, designed to enable cryptographic agility and policy enforcement across diverse environments, is positioned to assist these agencies in meeting the CNSA 2.0 requirements and achieving a quantum-secure future, supporting compliance with standards like CNSSP 15/NSM-10, PCI DSS, and DORA.

Eman spent her career leading some of the most complex data, cyber, and technology modernization efforts in government.

Brian Cunningham, EVP Strategy & Growth, QuSecure
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Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

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