We don’t know the exact date, but we know it will happen. Melchor Sanz, CTO of HP, warns in the Orbital Vision 2026 yearbook about when quantum computing will break current encryption and why companies must start protecting themselves today.
We live in a tense calm. All digital security in the world (from banking transactions to state secrets) has protection based on mathematical problems that today’s computers would take centuries to solve. But that time barrier is about to be broken by quantum computing. In an interesting article in the section Future of Orbital VisionMelchor Sanz gives a name to this threat: “Q Day”.
“‘Q Day’ is approaching,” warns the HP executive, referring to the moment when a quantum computer has enough power to break the standard encryption algorithms (RSA, ECC) that protect the Internet today. Although it may seem like science fiction, the threat is present due to the cybercriminals’ strategy known as «Harvest Now, Decrypt Later» (Harvest now, decipher later).
Harvest today, decipher tomorrow
Sanz explains in the yearbook a disturbing scenario: attackers are already stealing encrypted data today. Although they cannot read them yet, they store them waiting for quantum technology to become available to open that “safe.” Therefore, quantum resilience is not a problem of the future, it is a need of the present.
“Organizations cannot wait for the threat to materialize to react,” says HP’s CTO. The interview details how HP is leading this transition by integrating quantum-resistant security chips into its devices, ensuring that hardware purchased today will still be secure five to ten years from now.
Security starts with the hardware
Melchor Sanz delves into the importance of protecting the endpoint. In a world of hybrid and distributed work, the laptop or printer is the first line of defense. HP advocates security by design, which shields the device from the BIOS to the operating system against attacks that, in the future, will be infinitely faster and more powerful than the current ones.
The entire conversation is a call to action for CISOs and managers: post-quantum cryptography is not a fad, it is the life insurance of corporate information in the medium term.
If you want to read the full interview and much more, download Orbital Vision 2026 for free https://orbital-vision-2026.getresponsewebsite.com/
