Bruno Couillard ‐ LinkedIn

The federal government took another important step last week toward treating quantum technology as the defence priority that it is.

The launch of Canada's first Quantum Defence Innovation Secure Hub (DISH) will bring together government, industry and academia to develop and test quantum technologies for defence and national security.

The attention being paid towards quantum computing is about both its capabilities and its risks. As I recently explained in the Financial Post, legacy cyber security attacks are a warning shot for the seismic impact that quantum threats will impose on industries, governments, even entire economies.

But there is another side of the quantum defence equation that deserves our attention, and that of our leaders: how we secure what we are building.

Every modern defence platform depends on cryptography. Not simply to encrypt communications, but to establish identity, authenticate commands and devices, protect software and firmware updates, secure cryptographic keys and maintain trusted roots of trust across increasingly connected systems.

Take an autonomous platform like a drone, satellite, or command-and-control network. How will the drone confirm that each command comes from Canada's CAF and not from a state-backed hostile hacker?

For decades, we could largely take that foundation for granted.

The public-key cryptography underpinning those trust relationships was designed for a classical computing environment, and it has worked.

Quantum computing will undermine that level of security in the blink of an eye.

A quantum computer would fundamentally change the security assumptions behind widely deployed public-key systems. It would threaten the confidentiality of encrypted information and, more importantly, the digital signatures and roots of trust used to authenticate devices and software.

That is why quantum-safe cryptography cannot be treated as an upgrade we bolt onto these systems sometime down the road. It needs to become part of how we think about defence innovation and procurement from the beginning.

Nothing rolling out of any of Canada's Defence Innovation Secure Hubs should be vulnerable to a quantum hack.

Canada has an advantage here.

It's well known that Canadian researchers have helped make this country a global leader in quantum science.

What's equally important is that Canadian engineers and companies have spent decades building foundational technologies in modern cryptography. From secure communications protocols and random number generation systems to hardware security modules and trusted computing infrastructure used in financial services and government systems. Indeed, the next generation of quantum-safe security infrastructure is also being developed and manufactured here at home by Canadians.

In an era where governments are increasingly concerned about trusted supply chains and sovereign control over sensitive technologies, Ottawa has a responsibility to help Canadian companies build the cryptographic foundation of our defence systems here at home.

The new Quantum Defence Innovation Secure Hub is an encouraging signal that government understands both the strategic importance of quantum technology and the need to bring Canadian government, researchers and industry together to turn our expertise into real defence capabilities.

This is exactly the kind of investment Canada should be making right now. We have spent decades building world-class expertise in quantum science. We are a global leader in the research, development and commercialization of quantum technologies. Now we have an opportunity to translate that expertise into sovereign capabilities that strengthen our security and our economy.

The next step is making sure sovereign, trusted post-quantum cryptography is built into that work from the beginning.

Canada has an opportunity to build both sides of the quantum equation here at home: the technologies that will define the future of defence and the cryptographic infrastructure that protects them.

As the new Quantum Defence Innovation Secure Hub begins its work, quantum-safe security should be part of the conversation from day one. The systems we develop today will operate for decades. The cryptographic infrastructure protecting them needs to be designed accordingly.

Crypto4A is a Canadian cybersecurity company pioneering quantum-safe hardware security modules (HSMs) and infrastructure solutions designed to safeguard the digital world today and tomorrow. Trusted by enterprises, governments, and infrastructure providers across the globe, we specialize in crypto-agility, scalability, portability, and post-quantum cryptography.