Power without Control is nothing.

As we sat in a room full of quantum computer (QC) professionals yesterday discussing post quantum security and the urgent need to identify all certificates and keys, technology company Honeywell international Inc. announced that it had achieved a breakthrough in QC that accelerates it's capability.

This breakthrough will enable it to release the world's most powerful QC in terms of quantum volume, a measure of quantum capability that goes beyond the number of qubits, within the next three months. It also announced major investments in two quantum companies, there will be more.

The overriding question we had, and indeed have with this and other quantum companies is this: One day, some time in the not too distant future, the great QC migration (QCM) will be critical and as with current, classical computers, public Key Infrastructure (PKI), the security framework made up of certificates and keys, will be totally relied upon for pre and post QC. A focus must be on early adoption of full PKI discovery, management and automation immaterial of the QC environment and PQC secure PKI.

Our quantum gathering agreed unanimously that power without control is nothing and that full PKI discovery is imperative. The position is clear however with Honeywell as well as IBM, Google, Microsoft and other QC players as we've all witnessed before, functionality is first, security some distant time later. Unfortunately security simply cannot wait as QCM must be prioritised and investments made in that security, not just their functionality.

To prepare for QC and PQCM you need to first fully discover and that has, until now been impossible.