Google's Quantum Readiness Timeline

Rebecca Krauthamer, CEO and co-founder of QuSecure

In response to Google updating its quantum readiness timeline to 2029, Rebecca Krauthamer, CEO and co-founder of QuSecure, commented:

The obsession with when quantum computing will arrive is becoming the industry’s biggest distraction. Google’s “2029 quantum readiness” framing may avoid explicitly predicting Q-Day, but it fuels the same cycle: debate the date, treat the risk as future, and delay action. That framing is the real issue at play. From a security standpoint, the impact isn’t coming, it’s already here by the nature of the threat: data being encrypted today is being harvested with the expectation it can be decrypted later. This “steal now, decrypt later” (SNDL) reality means the risk window isn’t tied to a future breakthrough, but to decisions being made right now. In addition to SNDL, there are pre-existing government mandates that make a 2029 announcement or others essentially a moot point, including no new acquisitions into NSS that don’t support PQC after Jan 1, 2027. Timeline-driven announcements (predictive or not) create noise and false comfort, suggesting there’s still time, when we’re already operating inside its early consequences.