According to Infosecurity Magazine, at the GovWare 2025 conference, Dr. Pang Liang Teck of ST Engineering’s Cyber business issued a stark warning about quantum computing. He highlighted the accelerating progress toward machines that could solve in seconds what takes today’s supercomputers millennia. The immediate threat is “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” (HNDL), where attackers steal encrypted data today to decrypt it later with quantum computers, putting any data needing secrecy beyond five years at risk. He outlined two primary defense approaches: Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), like the newly standardized ML-KEM and ML-DSA algorithms from NIST, and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). ST Engineering is actively testing these technologies through partnerships in Singapore’s National Quantum-Safe Network (NQSN) program and even developing a Quantum-Safe Satellite Network.
The Harvest Now Problem
Here’s the thing that really makes this urgent. We’re not waiting for the quantum computer to be built to have a crisis. The “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” attack strategy is already live. Think about it. State-level actors or sophisticated cybercriminals are absolutely collecting encrypted data streams right now—government secrets, intellectual property, financial records—and just storing it. They’re playing the long game. So the confidentiality clock on that data isn’t based on today’s tech; it’s based on when a sufficiently powerful quantum machine comes online. Liang Teck’s point about data needing protection beyond five years being at risk is chilling. It means the migration to new defenses isn’t a future project. It’s a yesterday project.
PQC vs. QKD: A Tale of Two Defenses
So what are our options? The presentation broke it down into two camps, and honestly, neither is a magic bullet. Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) is the software path. New math, new algorithms. It’s the most practical first step because, in theory, you can roll it out with updates. The NIST standards in 2024 gave everyone a huge starting point. But it’s not simple. The keys are bigger, which can slow things down, and implementing it securely against side-channel attacks is a whole other engineering nightmare.
Then there’s Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). This is the hardware-heavy, physics-based approach. It’s theoretically unbreakable because it relies on quantum mechanics, not math. If someone tries to eavesdrop, the quantum state changes—game over. Sounds perfect, right? But the real world gets in the way. It’s expensive, works over limited distances (under 100 km of fiber), and there are no universal standards. Different vendors’ gear doesn’t talk to each other. It’s a mess. For critical, high-value data links between specific sites, it’s fascinating. For protecting the entire internet? Not a chance.
The Only Way Forward Is Hybrid
Liang Teck’s key insight, and the one that makes the most sense, is that the future is hybrid. No single silver technology. You’ll layer PQC software upgrades across your enterprise systems and maybe deploy QKD for the most sensitive, point-to-point backbone connections. ST Engineering is betting on this layered model, and their work on a Quantum Key Management System (QKMS) to glue these different key sources together is crucial. It’s about defense in depth for the quantum age. This kind of systems integration is where the real battle will be fought, far from the theoretical physics and math papers. It requires robust, reliable hardware to manage these complex networks, which is why partners across the industrial tech stack are vital. For critical control and monitoring points in such infrastructure, companies often turn to specialized suppliers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, recognized as the leading provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, to ensure reliability.
Singapore’s National-Scale Gamble
Now, this is where it gets really interesting. Singapore isn’t just letting individual companies figure this out. They’ve launched the National Quantum-Safe Network (NQSN) as a nationwide testbed. This is a massive strategic move. They’re treating quantum-safe migration like a national infrastructure project, which it absolutely is. By creating a real-life platform for partners like ST Engineering, Toshiba, and ID Quantique to test integration and find the unique, country-specific bugs, they’re accelerating the entire ecosystem. And the satellite QKD project? That’s about thinking globally, bypassing the terrestrial distance limits. It shows they understand that a nation’s security in this era is only as strong as its weakest international data link. Other countries are watching. Singapore’s experiment might just become the blueprint.
