Quantum technology – what is it, why should you care and what should you do?
You’ve probably heard a lot about “quantum” recently. 2025 is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, reflecting 100 years on from the foundational discoveries, a number of next generation quantum technologies, or quantum 2.0, are approaching maturity.
Quantum physics is a weird and confusing subject, full of mysterious terms like entanglement and teleportation, and counterintuitive phenomena such as the legendary “Schrodinger’s cat” thought experiment. Although the quantum weirdness is often difficult to observe at a macroscopic scale, this month saw the Nobel Prize for Physics awarded for an experiment back in 1984 that did exactly that.
However, the good news is that you don’t need a PhD in physics to start thinking about the potential impact of quantum 2.0. These technologies include quantum navigation and timing systems, quantum sensing of gravity, magnetic fields and more, and quantum communication. However, the field that gets the most attention, and investment, is quantum computing. Indeed, that Nobel Prize winning experiment was a key precursor to being able to make and control qubits that are at the heart of quantum computers.
Quantum computing has massive long-term potential to transform society, by enabling new types of computations, but is also a field full of myths and misconceptions. In particular, quantum computers cannot just do the same calculations as today’s computers only faster/better/cheaper. Nor do they work by “trying all solutions at once”. And they certainly don’t prove that they are leveraging the computational power across multiple universes, no matter what headlines you might see.
Instead, quantum computers introduce a completely new paradigm of computing, one which might enable new types of calculations that are intractable using current computers. Finding potential quantum algorithms, and the problems they could solve, is an active area of research. Potential candidates include discovering novel drugs, or solving complex optimisation problems like train scheduling.
Another thing that quantum computers turn out to be good at doing is factoring large numbers. This might sound esoteric, but it could potentially impact some forms of encryption – leading to some to predict a “quantum apocalypse”. However, it’s not true that all encryption will be at risk – specifically the public/private key encryption that we use when sending data across a network is the potential issue. A sufficiently large and accurate enough quantum computer could potentially allow someone to decrypt such data and see what is being sent across the network.
Although many organisations have developed quantum computing platforms, current systems are very much experimental prototypes. There is a lot of scientific and engineering work needed to scale these up to the point where they could challenge modern encryption standards. Estimates vary, but such a scenario is probably between 5-15 years away. Even when the first such systems arrive, they will be very few of them, and each one will probably take several days to decrypt a single session of network traffic. This means that anyone with access to such a system would undoubtedly focus in using them for potential high value targets. There will be no “Q-Day” when suddenly all encryption becomes useless, instead over time there will be an increasing risk to traffic sent across public networks, starting with what is likely to contain valuable information such as nation state level secrets.
Therefore, over the next few years we will need to upgrade the encryption used for such systems to be resistant to such quantum computer attacks. Fortunately, there is a solution called “post-quantum cryptography” – basically some new maths for public/private key encryption, which can generally run on existing computing hardware. When planning such upgrades, it will be important to focus on the highest risk systems first. This includes considering the threat of “harvest now, decrypt later”– if you are sending data across a network that could be of value to someone several years in the future, there is a chance they could collect and store the encrypted data now, ready to decrypt it in the future if and when they have access to a good enough quantum computer. However, this will require a well -resourced, patient adversary, willing to eventually devote their (initially) scarce quantum computing resources to decrypting your data – so again is most urgent for the highest risk scenarios.
So what should we be doing now to prepare for this upcoming quantum revolution? First, we should make sure our encryption systems will be ready, as we know some IT upgrades are going to be complex. Start by understanding where you use encryption and which system are potentially vulnerable. Next, identify the highest priorities – for example, because they carry data that needs to be kept private for a long period, or because they will take a long time to upgrade, and start planning this work first – but don’t forget to eventually upgrade everything that could be vulnerable. Also think about the opportunities – what is your organisation doing to engage with the research, helping to find valuable problems to match the development of quantum algorithms, so that when the hardware is available you may be able to deliver transformational business benefit?
Widespread quantum computing may be several years away, but given the potential impact, now is the time to start the preparations, as these will be multi-year programs of work. However, ignore the hype and most importantly, don’t panic – there will be no such thing as Q-Day when everything is broken all at once. Instead, calmly assess what is your highest risk and priority, and start there.
About the Author
Dr Rajiv Shah is a globally recognised technology strategist and researcher specialising in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and national resilience. With a background spanning government, academia, and industry, Rajiv has advised on emerging technology policy, capability development and enterprise architecture across multiple jurisdictions.
As a member of the CAN.B Group Advisory Board, he contributes his expertise to advance Australia’s sovereign capability agenda through the AUSOVRN™ Ecosystem, with a particular focus on high-assurance computing, quantum resilience, telecommunications, and ethical AI.