Quantum Cryptography, Cybersecurity

QSE’s quantum encryption upgrades prep for 2027 deadlines

Avatar of Ivy Delaney
November 5, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

The U.S. National Security Agency revealed on October 1 that adversaries are actively collecting encrypted data with the intent to decrypt it using future quantum computers. This threat is driving immediate action. Committee on National Security Systems Policy 15 mandates that all new commercial National Security Systems support quantum-resistant algorithms starting in 2027, phasing out legacy systems by 2030.

Quantum Secure Encryption Corp. (CSE: QSE) (OTCQB: QSEGF) (FSE: VN80) addresses the initial challenge of identifying existing cryptographic vulnerabilities, with CEO Ted Carefoot stating the company’s focus is on “quantum-resilient data protection, identity security, secure storage and cryptographic migration readiness.”

2027 Deadlines Drive Encryption Upgrade Initiatives

Microchip Technology is enhancing its Flashtec SSD controller portfolio with a version of its PCIe Gen 5 NVMe 5016 controller that supports the Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite (CNSA) 2.0, a move designed to prepare customers for emerging post-quantum security requirements. This upgrade, announced on October 12, demonstrates a broadening effort to embed quantum-resistant cryptography at the hardware level, extending beyond software-based solutions and addressing the 2027 deadlines for new National Security Systems. The urgency surrounding these upgrades stems from the documented threat of “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, as the National Security Agency publicly stated on October 1.

Oracle Corporation is responding by integrating post-quantum cryptography into its Java platform with the release of Java 27 on September 15, featuring hybrid key exchange for TLS 1.3 and support for the ML-KEM and ML-DSA post-quantum algorithms through Oracle Jipher 20.

According to Georges Saab, senior vice president, Oracle Java Platform and chair, OpenJDK governing board, “With Java 27, Oracle delivers a major post-quantum cryptography milestone and is executing on a roadmap to bring comparable capabilities to JDK releases with long-term support offered by Oracle. This will help customers protect business-critical applications and data with less disruption.” Beyond individual product upgrades, companies are also focusing on providing tools for assessing and managing the transition to post-quantum cryptography. Quantum Secure Encryption Corp. (CSE: QSE) (OTCQB: QSEGF) (FSE: VN80) is offering QSim, a simulation and decision-support capability designed to help organizations compare different migration approaches, costs and timelines.

QSim evaluates feasibility, residual quantum risk, estimated cost, timing and technology readiness for scenarios ranging from maintaining existing encryption to fully adopting post-quantum security. Ted Carefoot, Chief Executive Officer of QSE, said, “Post-quantum migration will require coordinated decisions across security, technology, finance and operations.” He added that “QSim is designed to give those teams a common evidence base so leadership can approve a plan that is understandable, measurable, and defensible.” This emphasis on providing a clear, quantifiable assessment of migration options reflects the complexity of transitioning to a new cryptographic paradigm.

The scope of this transition extends to the very foundations of internet security, with Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) announcing its intent to become a public Certificate Authority supporting post-quantum Merkle Tree Certificates (MTCs) beginning in the first quarter of 2027.

MTCs offer a lightweight method for verifying certificate authenticity, reducing the computational overhead associated with post-quantum signatures. Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder of Cloudflare, highlighted the scale of the undertaking by stating, “Upgrading the web’s security before quantum computers can break it is one of the biggest coordination challenges in the history of the Internet.” Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE.

NET) is also expanding its capabilities through acquisition, agreeing to acquire Zero Trust security company Elisity, Inc. in a deal valued at up to $1.3 billion, with the intention of integrating Elisity’s IdentityGraph with cryptographic inventory and risk information.

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval. Executive Order 14412, signed on June 22, 2026, further solidifies these timelines, directing federal agencies to transition key establishment to post-quantum cryptography by December 31, 2030, and digital signatures by December 31, 2031.

This two-stage rollout provides a structured approach to implementation, acknowledging the complexity of migrating large-scale systems. The order also mandates that covered contractors comply with Federal Information Processing Standards by the same 2030 deadline, extending the requirements beyond government agencies. These converging deadlines are driving a wave of activity across the cybersecurity landscape as organizations race to assess their vulnerabilities and implement the necessary upgrades to protect against the looming threat of quantum decryption.

With Java 27, Oracle delivers a major post-quantum cryptography milestone and is executing on a roadmap to bring comparable capabilities to JDK releases with long-term support offered by Oracle. This will help customers protect business-critical applications and data with less disruption.

Georges Saab, senior vice president, Oracle Java Platform and chair, OpenJDK governing board
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Avatar of Ivy Delaney

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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