{"id":236066,"date":"2026-06-23T17:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/white-house-pqc-order-lights-a-fire-under-post-quantum-transition\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T17:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:45:11","slug":"white-house-pqc-order-lights-a-fire-under-post-quantum-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/white-house-pqc-order-lights-a-fire-under-post-quantum-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"White House PQC order \u2018lights a fire\u2019 under post-quantum transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

White House PQC order \u2018lights a fire\u2019 under post-quantum transition<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/cybersecurity\/2026\/06\/white-house-pqc-order-lights-a-fire-under-post-quantum-transition\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-23 17:41:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: federalnewsnetwork.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

The White House is accelerating the governmentwide shift to post-quantum cryptography through new deadlines and pilots, but key questions remain about how agencies will fund and carry out a complex PQC transition.
\nIn an executive order signed Monday, President Donald Trump directs agencies to identify lead PQC transition officials within 30 days.
\nThe order requires agencies to transition \u201chigh value assets\u201d and \u201chigh impact systems\u201d to post-quantum cryptographic keys by Dec. 31, 2030 and PQC digital signatures by the end of 2031.
\nUnder the Biden administration, agencies had generally been planning to shift to the new algorithms by 2035.]]><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s EO builds on work in recent years to plan for a \u201ccryptographically-relevant quantum computer,\u201d or one that could break current data encryption standards. Cybersecurity experts are particularly concerned that U.S. adversaries could steal data today and decrypt using a quantum computer in the future, in what\u2019s known as a \u201charvest now, decrypt later\u201d strategy.
\nIn 2024, the National Institute of Standards and Technology finalized the first post-quantum encryption standards and encouraged organizations to start the transition.
\nThe accelerated deadlines in Trump\u2019s new EO \u201creally lights a fire under everyone to say, \u2018hey, this is something that the government\u2019s taking seriously,\u2019\u201d according to Garfield Jones, the former associate chief of strategic technology at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
\n\u201cIt drops it right in the CIO\u2019s lap to say, \u2018I\u2019ve got to get this ready. This is not for somebody else\u2019s tenure 10 years from now. It\u2019s my tenure now that I have to get this done,\u2019\u201d Jones, who is now executive vice president for strategy and research at PQC firm QuSecure, told Federal News Network.
\nThe EO directs the Office of Management and Budget to issue new PQC guidance to agencies within 90 days.
\nMatthew Hartman, chief strategy officer at Merlin Strategy Group and former acting head of cybersecurity at CISA, said the executive order \u201cmakes clear that quantum readiness is no longer a future problem.\u201d
\n\u201cOrganizations need to begin their transition to post-quantum cryptography now, especially as adversaries continue to pursue \u2018harvest now, decrypt later\u2019 strategies against sensitive data,\u201d Hartman said in written comments. \u201cEqually important is the administration\u2019s focus on identifying high-value assets and high-impact systems, because agencies cannot effectively prioritize quantum risk without first understanding where their most critical data resides.\u201d]]><\/p>\n

The EO also directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to start a pilot project for PQC migration in the next 180 days. The pilot should be done by the end of 2027, per the order.
\nIndustry experts also say the EO\u2019s section on procurement is critical.
\nThe order directs OMB, NASA and the General Services Administration to lead an effort to identify \u201ccost-saving opportunities in implementing the national PQC migration policy and strategy, such as migration of cloud-based technologies, shared procurement of PQC tools, joint training programs, and centralized technical support.\u201d
\nIt additionally directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council to develop rules requiring contractors to comply with PQC requirements by Dec. 31, 2030.
\nDarren Guccione, chief executive and co-founder of Keeper Security, said the EO\u2019s hard deadlines are key.
\n\u201cNIST spent years developing and approving quantum-resistant algorithms,\u201d Guccione said in written comments. \u201cThis order makes that work enforceable.\u201d
\nHe said a separate executive order on quantum innovation, also signed by Trump Monday, is a \u201cnecessary counter-part\u201d to the PQC order.
\n\u201cYou cannot build quantum-resistant defenses while ceding ground on quantum computing capability itself,\u201d Guccione wrote. \u201cEstablishing a national quantum computing effort, expanding counterintelligence protection for domestic quantum infrastructure and investing in supply chain and workforce development signals that the United States is treating this technology seriously on both sides of the equation \u2013 as something to build and something to defend against.\u201d
\nBut experts also pointed to potential gaps in the PQC executive order that may be addressed by forthcoming OMB guidance and other efforts.]]><\/p>\n

Jones said in addition to focusing on \u201chigh value\u201d assets and systems, agencies should account for the \u201clifecycle\u201d of the data within those systems. While some federal information will only remain sensitive for a few years, other data \u2013 like taxpayer information or Census data \u2013 could be at risk if stolen and decrypted in the future.
\n\u201cWe haven\u2019t implemented the algorithms yet, so between now and 2030, 2031, we still have all that data that\u2019s still moving out, that\u2019s still at risk of being harvested,\u201d Jones said.
\nBill Wright, head of government affairs at Everpure, said \u201creal quantum readiness requires resilience and crypto-agility,\u201d referring to the ability of an information system to rapidly change encryption algorithms without disrupting operations.
\n\u201cAgencies\u00a0need to know where their sensitive data lives, protect it across its lifecycle, and evolve faster than the threat does,\u201d Wright said in written comments.
\nFunding the transition to PQC could also be a major challenge. Most agencies have not budgeted for those efforts. During the Biden administration, OMB estimated\u00a0the federal government\u2019s transition to PQC standards would cost roughly $7.1 billion over 10 years.
\nGuccione said migrating to PQC is not a simple one-and-done upgrade.
\n\u201cIt means mapping every environment where public-key algorithms are in use, identifying which data carries long-term sensitivity, sequencing changes across interconnected systems and verifying that vendors throughout the supply chain can meet the same standard,\u201d he said. \u201cThat work takes years under the best conditions. For most enterprises, 2030 is not a comfortable horizon. It is a hard deadline against a backlog they have not yet measured.\u201d
\n Copyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n

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White House PQC order \u2018lights a fire\u2019 under post-quantum transition https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/cybersecurity\/2026\/06\/white-house-pqc-order-lights-a-fire-under-post-quantum-transition\/ Publish Date: 2026-06-23 17:41:00…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":236067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Trump_15586-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-236066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236068,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236066\/revisions\/236068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}