Page 230 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2025

Healthcare: Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and PHI are often protected by ECC-based security.
Quantum compromise would expose patient identities, diagnoses, and histories, ripe for exploitation or
blackmail.

Intellectual Property: Corporations could have trade secrets and patent applications stolen before filing,
allowing competitors to replicate and deploy them first.

Critical Infrastructure: Power grids and water systems rely on PKI for SCADA system commands. A
quantum-empowered attacker could feasibly disrupt these at scale, causing cascading failures in
essential services.

Vulnerable
Sector Encryption Quantum Threat Impact Example Incident Scenario

Finance RSA/ECC Theft, forgery, payment Fake SWIFT messages;
compromise intercepted transfers

Government PKI Espionage; secret Decrypting stored intelligence
exposure after Q-Day

Healthcare ECC/PKI Identity theft, privacy Nationwide hospital records
breach breach

IP/Corporate PKI Competitive loss, Patent data stolen pre-filing
espionage

Infrastructure PKI-secured Physical sabotage, outages Quantum-enabled blackout
SCADA

Preparing for the Quantum Era

Defending against quantum threats means starting now:

1. Inventory & Classification – Map all instances of vulnerable encryption across your
organization. Identify high-risk systems.
2. Post-Quantum Migration – Implement NIST-selected algorithms like Kyber and Dilithium,
designed to be resistant to quantum attacks (NIST, 2023).

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2025 Edition 230
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