September 24, 2025 • 28 mins
In this episode, Josh Lupresto and Sumera Riaz discuss the intersection of quantum computing and cybersecurity, particularly in light of the Quantum World Congress. They explore the implications of quantum technology on encryption, the urgency of adopting post-quantum cryptography standards, and how businesses can prepare for the quantum future. The conversation emphasizes the importance of trust and proactive measures in safeguarding data against emerging quantum threats.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the podcast designed to fuel your success selling
technology solutions. I'm your host, Josh Lapresto,
SVP of Sales Engineering at Telaris, and this is Next Level
Biztech. Everybody, welcome back.
We're kicking off today. It's called When Quantum Meets
Cyber and it's a field report from the front lines.
(00:23):
Today on with us, we have SumeraRiaz, Telaris solution architect
over security. Sumera, welcome back.
Thanks, Josh. Great to be here and great to
kick off Cyber Security Awareness Month with you.
Love it. So you, you know, we like to get
out to these conferences. We like to understand what's
(00:44):
going on. You know, in, in, in past
episodes, we've talked about what we've seen at reinvent and
Google next and we've sent folksto Dreamforce.
And so you got to go to AAI think a pretty cool one.
The, you know, Quantum World Congress.
There's a lot to unpack here andwe're going to get to that in in
just a second. But maybe let's give anybody
(01:06):
that that doesn't know, that hasn't met you just give us a
tiny, you know, you've been herea little while not too long, but
but for anybody that doesn't know, you give a little bit of
back story on historically your role kind of where you come
from. Sure.
So I've been in cybersecurity now for almost 18 1/2 years.
My career started early with Gsis like HCL, USD, Global Cap,
(01:29):
Gemini being the last years. I was with and based in Europe
for 11 of those wonderful years.At the end I was with Cap
Gemini, one of the global Cisos that ran our internal security
but also managed five of our strategic accounts, which was
Bayer, British Petroleum, HSBC, Vodafone and Orange.
I had a team of 145 people, 2 sock centers, one out of
(01:52):
Scotland, one out of India and then my GRC team was based out
of Amsterdam and Poland. And 2017 I moved back stateside
and been a see so until the channel found me end of 2023 and
then about a year later found myway to Telaris and here we are.
(02:13):
I love it. I love it so much.
Lot to unpack there a lot of butI, I think what, what I want the
advisors to understand is there is so much cool experience there
that you have had so many thingsthat you have seen so many
different shoes that you have been in.
And I know that will come out over time, whether it's on this
podcast, whether it's when you're working on opportunities
with partners. Just seen it already happened.
(02:34):
So love, love that and, and excited to have partners get
more exposure, more experience and, and, and bring you in on on
deals and all that good stuff. All right, let's, let's kick
this off. First of all, before we get into
what you saw, what you learned, all these good things, let's
just level set on why quantum, What is quantum, Why does it
(02:58):
matter? Help everybody understand that.
Sure. So I'm going to give a
disclaimer. I'm not a quantum physicist.
You know, my masters is in information, I in information
technology. Yeah, it says P Certified
Ethical Hacker CSO. I am not a quantum physicist.
About 2 1/2 years ago when I wasCSO, I stumble into quantum
(03:22):
almost by accident. So at the time my company was
going through a minor event and we have the best defenses in
place. We had over 15,000,000 in
security spend every year. We have the best of sweet, we
have the best of free. And after the cleanup of this
event, I just kind of paused andtook a moment reflected across
my entire digital landscape. But one question kept gnawing at
(03:44):
me is if today's top shelf defenses are already strained,
what happens when tomorrow arrives faster than we can
expect? So I started digging into
quantum at that time. At first it felt like science
fiction. I was listening to Willow,
Google's Willow Pitch and Queer Eye and others, and they were
talking about the multiverse andall the different probabilities
(04:08):
and that quantum computes. So at first, of course, it felt
like science fiction particles in two places at once.
Computers that think in probabilities instead of
absolutes. But then it hit me that this
isn't this isn't about physics alone.
It's about trust. It's about risk and opportunity
colliding all at the same time. So the task before me wasn't to
(04:30):
understand physics. It was leadership translating
the future into decisions that we're making today.
And then teach others so leaderscan prepare, protect and grow in
the quantum era. So, and that's kind of what set
me on this path, not chasing height, but helping others see
that quantum isn't just a feature of computing, it's a
feature of trust. So if we, if we try to level
(04:53):
set, I guess a little bit about I, I guess I don't want to go
too deep into this, but but I think quantum is just a really
hard thing to explain. And if we think about Moore's
law, we've talked about that a lot on the podcast, you know,
things exponentially, you know, let's say within 18 months, the
computing cycle, the things thatwe invented 18 months ago are
(05:14):
obsolete, right? Because people are bringing in
new chips. They can do more processes,
more, more flops, all all that good stuff.
Can you just maybe give us a 32nd on?
This is not a, we can stack moreGP us, CP us more on off cycles.
Electrons are either on or they're off normally, and so
(05:37):
we've been able to get in front of the latest and scariest
security stuff. What what is it about?
How does quantum work in 30 seconds or less that makes it so
interesting to understand? Sure.
So quantum has the ability to compute faster than our
classical computers. Today.
Quantum works in qubits where classical computers work in
(06:00):
bits. 1010 qubits are one and zeros and with superpositioning
and entanglement, they can be inmultiple places at once.
So it can, if you think of outside of time, almost a bat,
look into a whole screen insteadof looking at it in one, one
(06:21):
frame at a time. So with that, the probabilities
and the, the, the equations thatgo behind the scenes are not
mathematics, they are physics. So what we have today is a set
of equations. For our classical computer, it's
math. With quantum computer, it's
physics. So it's kind of law physics
(06:42):
meeting math problem. But the the good part, the the
thing that is going to create this intrinsic trillion dollar
economic value here in the near future, it's about processing
speed. How can we put drugs to
discovery to market? It's going to speed that
process. Quantum security is mind blowing
(07:05):
and some of the stuff that you know, we're going to talk about
at the QWC, some of the things Isaw, they were like, this is
amazing and that we're taking security into account when we
build out an entire ecosystem. That was very encouraging to see
that, of course. All right.
Quantum World Congress, you went, what is it?
Help us kind of set the stage for the rest of what we're going
(07:28):
to talk about. Sure.
So Quantum World Congress has been going on for I believe the
last five years and this year itwas my first time going.
So, you know, first thank each Alaris for allowing me to attend
this amazing gathering. So basically it's a global
gathering. This year it was over 31 nations
that came. Delegates from every nation for
(07:49):
31 countries were there. There was the people, the
quantum physicists and scientists who actually thought
up the the theoretically what quantum computers can do.
And then in the same room you had companies who took that
theory and converted into practicality.
And then you had the Microsoft, the IB, Ms., the Queras, the
(08:11):
Quantinium Zion cues in the roomwho took that practicality and
made it marketable and commercialized it.
And then you had, you know, the government, you had the
industries there, you had DoD, you had NSA there and all these
different branches, NEST was there.
And so all these companies have come together to see how are we
(08:32):
going to, how are we going to this has moved out of the lab
into marketplace now how are yougoing to build a runway together
instead of 1 industry at a time?It's just it was a very
collaborative effort. So the message was clear.
Quantum is actively moved from the lab into the marketplace.
And then when you see supply chain, standard bodies, major
(08:54):
providers already laying the groundwork, you realize this
isn't a someday conversation, it's a now conversation.
Yeah, what I, I guess what are some of the other, what's the
ground truths here? What, what started to stand out
to you the most, right. I mean, we, we, we, it seems
like we tried to talk about and started hearing quantum a couple
years ago, but we didn't know how far away it was.
(09:15):
We didn't hear about Willow or IB Ms. qubits or we see
everybody dumping the money intoit.
We see the companies coming out.We see big companies making
investment. It's, it's much more plausible,
right, And much more real. So maybe walk us through what
stood out to you the most in some of those initial things
that you saw. Sure.
There are four things actually that stood up the most.
(09:37):
First one was all the nations that were there together in the
international meeting room. Every single nation got up and
said the same thing, that there cannot be a quantum supremacy.
If one country has quantum supremacy, then it's just
becomes a 0 sum game. And that was the whole reason
why we all came together in thisin DC last week.
(09:57):
So the conversations at this point aren't about if anymore,
they're actually about how soon government, tech giants,
investor, they're already aligning on commercialization
timelines. So and then the second is post
quantum cryptography isn't something we read about or
theorize about anymore. It's a now a boardroom topic.
The urgency about safeguarding today's data against quantum
(10:20):
threats is one of the top thingsthat you know, most everybody's
talking about. That's kind of the buzz.
So from Washington to Europe to Asia, policies and standards are
forming. The level of international
alignment signals that quantum is becoming infrastructure, not
just innovation anymore. So we had, and lastly, we had
(10:41):
Microsoft, IBM, Booz Allen, NVIDIA, Ion Q, startup supply
chain leaders, SAS providers, government programs and the
whole ecosystem is building thisrunway together.
So that was amazing. It was awe inspiring.
I, you know, in room with panels, with NSA, with mist,
(11:01):
just a conversation. Conversations now are how do we
help companies get this message out to the companies and help
them with their Rd. maps. I love it.
Let's so let's think about quantum threats today versus,
you know, what's coming tomorrow.
(11:21):
And kind of when I think we, I think this is Bill Gates quote,
right? We underestimate the results of
the long term, We maybe overestimate the short term.
And so I, I feels like with whatwe've learned foundationally
with quantum about how it exponentially increases compute
power in just a different way, physics versus math, taking that
into consideration about quantumkind of breaking current
(11:43):
encryption standards, right? That's probably some of the talk
tracks. So with what you saw, how real
is that threat timelines? And I guess really how do you
want customers and customers thinking about that?
Sure. Yeah.
And that's such a great point you bring up and a great
question too. So we know that the real, this
is a real threat that our today's encryption will break.
(12:04):
NIST last year came out with newpost quantum cryptography
standards that companies and governments are now moving to.
So the threat is very real. You, you know, you hear a lot of
buzzer around it, but I believe the issue's a little bit deeper
than just that initial breaking encryption.
Quantum computing is large scale, right?
(12:27):
So it's going to break encryption at some point.
It's going with when that happens, companies are going to
be out of compliance. So it's going to be a multi fold
not, you know, instead of just the encryption alone.
But large scale fault tolerant computers are already here.
Ion Q and NVIDIA, who has a great GPU.
(12:48):
Ion Q launched their first faulttolerant computer earlier this
year. Quantinium is about to launch
Helios, their first fault tolerant computer.
Cloud as a service, Hardware as a service.
So the consumption today is a hybrid model.
So it went from theory, practical, marketable to hybrid
(13:08):
where we are now. And then in the near future, in
the next two to three years, we're going to see it
commercialized. So that's kind of a trajectory
that I saw at the conference. And you know in everyday life
that's kind of where we're headed.
So the issue of the threats, therisks, it is real.
(13:30):
And I believe that all companiesout there, our clients, our own
companies, we must have trust and confidence in our data and
our systems. And that's the bottom line.
And because data has a shelf life, if someone is stealing and
storing our data today, they maydecrypt it once those machines
arrive. That is why governments, major
(13:51):
providers, they're already moving to a post quantum
cryptography standard. And I will add actually one more
thing. If you've seen Nvidia's Jensen
Huang earlier in January when him, he and Bill Gates, they
were interviewed for, for a magazine article, he said
(14:13):
quantum is 15 to 30 years away. And just a couple of months ago,
he revisited that statement and he said Quantum is at an
inflection point now, which it'snearer than, you know, we, we
realized where NVIDIA also launched their hybrid model this
year. So it's the, the, the, the pace
that it's going and the trajectory it's setting.
(14:35):
It's, it's incredible. So we, we tend to see, you know,
events like this, you know, we get a, we get big groups
together as we start to see kindof companies sink money, people
making investments group to groups getting together,
thinking about how do we make this better for everybody?
And then once we start to see frameworks and standards bodies
(14:56):
and we know what's coming, right?
We, I, I think we can all attestto, we saw that when, you know,
the federal government got into the DoD side of things and CMMC,
if you're going to be doing business with contractors and we
saw that formalization. And now we've seen that over the
last couple years come into the channel of people trying to get
prepared for certain levels of CMMC compliance.
That was just an idea a few years ago.
(15:17):
It was like, ah, don't worry about it, it's not a big deal.
And then all of a sudden it became a big deal.
So it feels like NIST is kind offiguring this out, right?
NIST is this standards body that, that, that creates some of
these things. So maybe walk me through where
was NIST a part of this? Where are they at on standards?
(15:38):
How do they look at, at quantum?What's what's the thought there?
Sure. So I actually and met people
from this at the conference and they took part in many panels
and then they actually invited me to have dinner and drinks
with them one of the evenings and got to know them better.
They're just, you know, you think in this as a standard body
(15:58):
and I never, I never think of like, oh, there's actually bunch
of people who make this possible.
So I got to meet those amazing people behind the scenes that do
all the work. And it was amazing.
It was just wonderful meeting them.
Their mood was of course, excited and focused.
Excited because this tech is going to solve so many problems
that today's classical computerssimply cannot.
(16:20):
And they were focused because ofthe work that lies ahead.
So last year in August 2024, they up, they updated their
encryption standards listed to post quantum cryptography, which
federal agencies are already preparing to adopt the new PQC
standards. In the coming months, we're
(16:40):
going to see another post quantum standards update from
bodies like ISO, from IEFT, which is the Internet of
engineering engineering task force.
It's like a standardized organization for Internet
protocols like TCPIP. And then you're going to see 3
GPP, which is telecom. They're going to update their
PQC standards. So it's kind of a ripple effect.
(17:04):
So NIST started at ISO, and thenall the other bodies are going
to eventually, within the next two to three years, adopt the
PQC standards. So that was pretty cool.
And we heard from NASA, NASA, other agencies on the specific
Rd. maps for United States. The date was by January 2027,
(17:24):
January 1st, we have to have a road map in place.
And we heard from the rest of the delegations in EU and AIPAC,
their Rd. maps are we have to have one by middle or end of
2026. So I think US is now revisiting
their their date to road map. And we're going to keep you
posted on all that good information as it comes out.
(17:47):
But one interesting point I willmention that was brought up by
NIST and other bodies there was that companies, our clients are
waiting for supply chains to upgrade their quantum standards
so that they can adopt once these companies have upgraded,
like Microsoft, for example, or Google or other ERMSCRMS and
(18:08):
SAS's service, which is understandable, right?
However, I think there's a miss because the company's data, our
clients data doesn't belong to Microsoft.
It doesn't belong to Google, It doesn't belong to any sales
force or any other CRMS out there.
It belongs to the company. And as as a company, we must
take responsibility to safeguardour data.
(18:30):
I agree it's interesting. I mean, it, it, it fits into the
timelines of what you mentioned,right?
We saw quantum as an idea just afew years ago.
And then these, these things have happened.
The Quantum World Congress happens.
You're we talked about investments already and, and
the, the time horizon is definitely shortening.
And so it's, it's interesting. I mean, the middle of 2026 is
(18:53):
not very far away. So it's awesome to see everybody
kind of getting in front of this, getting ahead of this,
because it wouldn't surprise me.I mean, think about did anybody
that's that's out there listening think that LLMS and
Open AI would drop the product that they dropped in 2023 and it
was be, it would be as effectiveas it was on day one?
(19:14):
No, I, I don't think so. I don't think we expected that
for a little while yet. If you've driven in a self
driving car, did you expect it to be that good yet?
It's not perfect. There's still make errors, but
I'm, I'm constantly surprised athow good these things are
already and how fast they're moving.
So it just seems to me like we have to take we have to take
(19:34):
quantum seriously. I think same same side, right?
And these these timelines line up.
Yeah, let's think about right. Think about for for the partners
listening to this. Obviously, we want to make sure
that we're bringing you these, these, these angles, these
threads, these things that are out there that are relevant.
And then how do we help you translate that?
(19:55):
How does this, how does this go into a meaningful conversation
with your customers? Of course, you've got amazing
folks such as yourself here in the broader Telaris engineering
and architecture team to help you in those conversations.
But I guess Shamara, from your perspective, how do they start
the conversation? What are these questions?
Like, how do we make it so that it doesn't sound like it's just
(20:18):
something out of Star Wars? How do we walk through this?
So very good question. So kind of bringing it back and
landing, this is the way you have the conversation.
The key to this is grounding theconversation in trust and
reality. You don't have to start with
quantum physics. In fact, I would urge you not
to. You start with business impact,
(20:39):
right? So you remind clients that every
major technology chef wants, Josh, like you said, sounded
like science fiction. The Internet.
Who'd have thought? You know, that could be
something. The cloud.
I remember all the hype. Let's move to the cloud.
Well, where is the cloud? You know all that the, the, the
(21:02):
mystery around the cloud a few years ago and now AI, to your
point, it's a was it was sciencefiction at once.
It was something we saw in the movies.
But now we're in a in that reality, we live it and quantum
is going to be just like that. It's just simply the next
chapter and the real risk isn't that it's coming, it's
(21:22):
pretending that it's not coming.So as technology advisors, the
win is when we can translate thecomplex into practical.
Mr. Client, what does this mean for your data?
What does this mean for your compliance?
What does your long term resilience look like?
Clients, especially the ones that are in critical
infrastructures today. So I'm thinking Fedramp, CMMC
(21:47):
clients, banking clients, they should start their cryptography
inventory, their post Quantum pilots and building this into
their long term risk, risk planning.
So I think by framing Quantum asa foresight Rev and fear, we're
giving clients a confidence thatpreparing today isn't just about
(22:08):
buying into hype, it's about protecting the future that
they're working so hard to build.
As you think about things like this, I always like to go.
When we started the security practice years ago, it was who,
who they going after first? Because I remember when we would
talk to customers and, and we would get advisors all excited
about this. We'd go and talk to customers
(22:28):
and they'd go, I'm not big enough.
You, you tell me about these hacks that happened to target
and to these other banks and stuff like I, I, I'm not that
like I'm a, I'm a much smaller whatever.
Nobody knows about me, right. And that was the thesis early
on. And we're sitting here.
We we were sitting there then saying, Hey, do you use the
Internet and do you do business if you checked yet and do you
(22:51):
breathe air if you checked yes to any of those boxes, then
let's have a conversation because it turns out the bad
guys don't care whether you're aone or two person shop or they
don't care if you're 100,000 employee healthcare organization
with a bunch of very valuable black market, you know,
personally identifiable pieces of information.
So from your perspective, who, what industries, I mean, do we
(23:18):
think about the quantum things the same way?
Are there verticals that we think that are the most
impactful first or should be worried or or what's your
thoughts there? So it's such a good point you
bring up. So this is the question I asked
most all the vendors on the Expofloor last week is who is your
ideal client profile right now? Which are the industries that
(23:40):
are coming to you and asking forRd. maps, asking for solutions.
And it was a resounding message across the board.
They said the first ones coming to us are the, is the
governments, different governments across the world.
The D for United States are DoD aerospace.
So that translates into our world as your Fed RAMP clients,
(24:01):
your CMC clients, any SLED clients, any government agency,
whether it's state or federal, those are goods for a talk track
or to start engaging in these conversations.
And it's a close second is the banking industry banking for in
the United States I'm Speaking of.
(24:21):
So banking is already there's a couple of very large banks that
are already on their post quantum on a journey.
They've already done the road map.
They're on their journey now andthey were also at this event.
So banking is a close second in it when having these
conversations. And then after that, I believe
we're just going to see the ripple effect from healthcare
(24:43):
manufacturing, so on and so forth.
I love it. Yeah.
I think it's, it's just like a little bit of before where he or
she who has the most valuable records and is the least armed,
is the most susceptible. And so how do we continue to
help those customers think forward?
(25:04):
And what I like about this is that this, this isn't something
that they're already deeply entrenched in.
This is something that we're going to have to continually
have a lot of education conversations.
We're going to have to, you know, continue to bring vendors
and things like that into the landscape over time, as as
products mature and as as this product commercializes.
And so excited to kind of see where all that goes.
(25:26):
We'll keep a close eye on it. We'll keep bringing that to you
and we'll keep going to these things.
And I think they're, they're super valuable, right for us to
see. How does that time horizon
shorten, expand, you know, does it go in a different dimension?
Who knows? The point is we'll keep an eye
on it and we've got amazing resources.
You're you're hearing from one of them right here to help lead
(25:48):
out that conversation. So I guess as we as we kind of
wrap up some of this talk track here, we know that exponentially
quantum computing will impact security, right?
The things that that took, you know, hours and years before to
crack could potentially take seconds and minutes once quantum
(26:12):
kind of proliferates, right? So those are the things that
we're trying to get ahead of as a security architect.
How did this conference change the way that you will advise
partners or customers going forward?
That's a great, another great question you bring up.
So Telaris, at Telaris we're we are ahead of the curve in many
ways. And if you have worked at all
(26:34):
with our engineering team, it's second to none.
We've got brilliant people on onthis team, on our staff.
So the solutions that I and my team bring, they not only solve
today's business challenges, butour foresight on tomorrow's
emerging tech and emerging threats.
They ensure that our partners and our clients are armed with
the information they need on this growth journey.
(26:57):
So it's the difference between handing someone an umbrella when
it's pouring versus telling them, please carry one because
we can see the storm forming on the horizon.
So our, our conversations, they go beyond using technology to
achieve business outcomes. We focus on turning in the in
those, those outcomes into real impact.
So all that's to say is we can help you have these
(27:19):
conversations. We can help you earn and build
and maintain that trust with your clients.
We're built at Telaris to lead this next wave of this new
frontier. We're ready.
I love it. I think that's a great place to
wrap it, Samara. Awesome stuff, exciting leading
it out, leading the charge on Quantum, kind of first, first
(27:41):
out there. Appreciate all your efforts and
great stuff. Lots of great Nuggets.
Hope everybody can go back, listen to this and just figure
out one or two talk tracks. Think about it with your
customers. Are you thinking about this yet?
Is this on your mind yet? If so, we should have a
conversation. If not, we should have a
conversation. I love when things go that way.
So Samara, I really appreciate you coming on.
(28:02):
Thanks so much. All right, everybody, that wraps
us up for today. As we mentioned in the
beginning, this is kicking off Cyber Security Awareness month.
We got multiple sessions coming through you, coming through for
you in the next couple weeks. So keep an eye out for those.
I'm your host, Josh Lopresto, SVP of Sales Engineering at
Telaris Samira Riaz, Telaris Security Solutions Architect,
(28:25):
field report from the front lines when Quanah meets cyber.
Until next time. Next Level Biztech has been a
production of Telaris Studio 19.Please visit telaris.com For
more information.
Welcome to the podcast designed to fuel your success selling
technology solutions. I'm your host, Josh Lapresto,
SVP of Sales Engineering at Telaris, and this is Next Level
Biztech. Everybody, welcome back.
We're kicking off today. It's called When Quantum Meets
Cyber and it's a field report from the front lines.
(00:23):
Today on with us, we have SumeraRiaz, Telaris solution architect
over security. Sumera, welcome back.
Thanks, Josh. Great to be here and great to
kick off Cyber Security Awareness Month with you.
Love it. So you, you know, we like to get
out to these conferences. We like to understand what's
(00:44):
going on. You know, in, in, in past
episodes, we've talked about what we've seen at reinvent and
Google next and we've sent folksto Dreamforce.
And so you got to go to AAI think a pretty cool one.
The, you know, Quantum World Congress.
There's a lot to unpack here andwe're going to get to that in in
just a second. But maybe let's give anybody
(01:06):
that that doesn't know, that hasn't met you just give us a
tiny, you know, you've been herea little while not too long, but
but for anybody that doesn't know, you give a little bit of
back story on historically your role kind of where you come
from. Sure.
So I've been in cybersecurity now for almost 18 1/2 years.
My career started early with Gsis like HCL, USD, Global Cap,
(01:29):
Gemini being the last years. I was with and based in Europe
for 11 of those wonderful years.At the end I was with Cap
Gemini, one of the global Cisos that ran our internal security
but also managed five of our strategic accounts, which was
Bayer, British Petroleum, HSBC, Vodafone and Orange.
I had a team of 145 people, 2 sock centers, one out of
(01:52):
Scotland, one out of India and then my GRC team was based out
of Amsterdam and Poland. And 2017 I moved back stateside
and been a see so until the channel found me end of 2023 and
then about a year later found myway to Telaris and here we are.
(02:13):
I love it. I love it so much.
Lot to unpack there a lot of butI, I think what, what I want the
advisors to understand is there is so much cool experience there
that you have had so many thingsthat you have seen so many
different shoes that you have been in.
And I know that will come out over time, whether it's on this
podcast, whether it's when you're working on opportunities
with partners. Just seen it already happened.
(02:34):
So love, love that and, and excited to have partners get
more exposure, more experience and, and, and bring you in on on
deals and all that good stuff. All right, let's, let's kick
this off. First of all, before we get into
what you saw, what you learned, all these good things, let's
just level set on why quantum, What is quantum, Why does it
(02:58):
matter? Help everybody understand that.
Sure. So I'm going to give a
disclaimer. I'm not a quantum physicist.
You know, my masters is in information, I in information
technology. Yeah, it says P Certified
Ethical Hacker CSO. I am not a quantum physicist.
About 2 1/2 years ago when I wasCSO, I stumble into quantum
(03:22):
almost by accident. So at the time my company was
going through a minor event and we have the best defenses in
place. We had over 15,000,000 in
security spend every year. We have the best of sweet, we
have the best of free. And after the cleanup of this
event, I just kind of paused andtook a moment reflected across
my entire digital landscape. But one question kept gnawing at
(03:44):
me is if today's top shelf defenses are already strained,
what happens when tomorrow arrives faster than we can
expect? So I started digging into
quantum at that time. At first it felt like science
fiction. I was listening to Willow,
Google's Willow Pitch and Queer Eye and others, and they were
talking about the multiverse andall the different probabilities
(04:08):
and that quantum computes. So at first, of course, it felt
like science fiction particles in two places at once.
Computers that think in probabilities instead of
absolutes. But then it hit me that this
isn't this isn't about physics alone.
It's about trust. It's about risk and opportunity
colliding all at the same time. So the task before me wasn't to
(04:30):
understand physics. It was leadership translating
the future into decisions that we're making today.
And then teach others so leaderscan prepare, protect and grow in
the quantum era. So, and that's kind of what set
me on this path, not chasing height, but helping others see
that quantum isn't just a feature of computing, it's a
feature of trust. So if we, if we try to level
(04:53):
set, I guess a little bit about I, I guess I don't want to go
too deep into this, but but I think quantum is just a really
hard thing to explain. And if we think about Moore's
law, we've talked about that a lot on the podcast, you know,
things exponentially, you know, let's say within 18 months, the
computing cycle, the things thatwe invented 18 months ago are
(05:14):
obsolete, right? Because people are bringing in
new chips. They can do more processes,
more, more flops, all all that good stuff.
Can you just maybe give us a 32nd on?
This is not a, we can stack moreGP us, CP us more on off cycles.
Electrons are either on or they're off normally, and so
(05:37):
we've been able to get in front of the latest and scariest
security stuff. What what is it about?
How does quantum work in 30 seconds or less that makes it so
interesting to understand? Sure.
So quantum has the ability to compute faster than our
classical computers. Today.
Quantum works in qubits where classical computers work in
(06:00):
bits. 1010 qubits are one and zeros and with superpositioning
and entanglement, they can be inmultiple places at once.
So it can, if you think of outside of time, almost a bat,
look into a whole screen insteadof looking at it in one, one
(06:21):
frame at a time. So with that, the probabilities
and the, the, the equations thatgo behind the scenes are not
mathematics, they are physics. So what we have today is a set
of equations. For our classical computer, it's
math. With quantum computer, it's
physics. So it's kind of law physics
(06:42):
meeting math problem. But the the good part, the the
thing that is going to create this intrinsic trillion dollar
economic value here in the near future, it's about processing
speed. How can we put drugs to
discovery to market? It's going to speed that
process. Quantum security is mind blowing
(07:05):
and some of the stuff that you know, we're going to talk about
at the QWC, some of the things Isaw, they were like, this is
amazing and that we're taking security into account when we
build out an entire ecosystem. That was very encouraging to see
that, of course. All right.
Quantum World Congress, you went, what is it?
Help us kind of set the stage for the rest of what we're going
(07:28):
to talk about. Sure.
So Quantum World Congress has been going on for I believe the
last five years and this year itwas my first time going.
So, you know, first thank each Alaris for allowing me to attend
this amazing gathering. So basically it's a global
gathering. This year it was over 31 nations
that came. Delegates from every nation for
(07:49):
31 countries were there. There was the people, the
quantum physicists and scientists who actually thought
up the the theoretically what quantum computers can do.
And then in the same room you had companies who took that
theory and converted into practicality.
And then you had the Microsoft, the IB, Ms., the Queras, the
(08:11):
Quantinium Zion cues in the roomwho took that practicality and
made it marketable and commercialized it.
And then you had, you know, the government, you had the
industries there, you had DoD, you had NSA there and all these
different branches, NEST was there.
And so all these companies have come together to see how are we
(08:32):
going to, how are we going to this has moved out of the lab
into marketplace now how are yougoing to build a runway together
instead of 1 industry at a time?It's just it was a very
collaborative effort. So the message was clear.
Quantum is actively moved from the lab into the marketplace.
And then when you see supply chain, standard bodies, major
(08:54):
providers already laying the groundwork, you realize this
isn't a someday conversation, it's a now conversation.
Yeah, what I, I guess what are some of the other, what's the
ground truths here? What, what started to stand out
to you the most, right. I mean, we, we, we, it seems
like we tried to talk about and started hearing quantum a couple
years ago, but we didn't know how far away it was.
(09:15):
We didn't hear about Willow or IB Ms. qubits or we see
everybody dumping the money intoit.
We see the companies coming out.We see big companies making
investment. It's, it's much more plausible,
right, And much more real. So maybe walk us through what
stood out to you the most in some of those initial things
that you saw. Sure.
There are four things actually that stood up the most.
(09:37):
First one was all the nations that were there together in the
international meeting room. Every single nation got up and
said the same thing, that there cannot be a quantum supremacy.
If one country has quantum supremacy, then it's just
becomes a 0 sum game. And that was the whole reason
why we all came together in thisin DC last week.
(09:57):
So the conversations at this point aren't about if anymore,
they're actually about how soon government, tech giants,
investor, they're already aligning on commercialization
timelines. So and then the second is post
quantum cryptography isn't something we read about or
theorize about anymore. It's a now a boardroom topic.
The urgency about safeguarding today's data against quantum
(10:20):
threats is one of the top thingsthat you know, most everybody's
talking about. That's kind of the buzz.
So from Washington to Europe to Asia, policies and standards are
forming. The level of international
alignment signals that quantum is becoming infrastructure, not
just innovation anymore. So we had, and lastly, we had
(10:41):
Microsoft, IBM, Booz Allen, NVIDIA, Ion Q, startup supply
chain leaders, SAS providers, government programs and the
whole ecosystem is building thisrunway together.
So that was amazing. It was awe inspiring.
I, you know, in room with panels, with NSA, with mist,
(11:01):
just a conversation. Conversations now are how do we
help companies get this message out to the companies and help
them with their Rd. maps. I love it.
Let's so let's think about quantum threats today versus,
you know, what's coming tomorrow.
(11:21):
And kind of when I think we, I think this is Bill Gates quote,
right? We underestimate the results of
the long term, We maybe overestimate the short term.
And so I, I feels like with whatwe've learned foundationally
with quantum about how it exponentially increases compute
power in just a different way, physics versus math, taking that
into consideration about quantumkind of breaking current
(11:43):
encryption standards, right? That's probably some of the talk
tracks. So with what you saw, how real
is that threat timelines? And I guess really how do you
want customers and customers thinking about that?
Sure. Yeah.
And that's such a great point you bring up and a great
question too. So we know that the real, this
is a real threat that our today's encryption will break.
(12:04):
NIST last year came out with newpost quantum cryptography
standards that companies and governments are now moving to.
So the threat is very real. You, you know, you hear a lot of
buzzer around it, but I believe the issue's a little bit deeper
than just that initial breaking encryption.
Quantum computing is large scale, right?
(12:27):
So it's going to break encryption at some point.
It's going with when that happens, companies are going to
be out of compliance. So it's going to be a multi fold
not, you know, instead of just the encryption alone.
But large scale fault tolerant computers are already here.
Ion Q and NVIDIA, who has a great GPU.
(12:48):
Ion Q launched their first faulttolerant computer earlier this
year. Quantinium is about to launch
Helios, their first fault tolerant computer.
Cloud as a service, Hardware as a service.
So the consumption today is a hybrid model.
So it went from theory, practical, marketable to hybrid
(13:08):
where we are now. And then in the near future, in
the next two to three years, we're going to see it
commercialized. So that's kind of a trajectory
that I saw at the conference. And you know in everyday life
that's kind of where we're headed.
So the issue of the threats, therisks, it is real.
(13:30):
And I believe that all companiesout there, our clients, our own
companies, we must have trust and confidence in our data and
our systems. And that's the bottom line.
And because data has a shelf life, if someone is stealing and
storing our data today, they maydecrypt it once those machines
arrive. That is why governments, major
(13:51):
providers, they're already moving to a post quantum
cryptography standard. And I will add actually one more
thing. If you've seen Nvidia's Jensen
Huang earlier in January when him, he and Bill Gates, they
were interviewed for, for a magazine article, he said
(14:13):
quantum is 15 to 30 years away. And just a couple of months ago,
he revisited that statement and he said Quantum is at an
inflection point now, which it'snearer than, you know, we, we
realized where NVIDIA also launched their hybrid model this
year. So it's the, the, the, the pace
that it's going and the trajectory it's setting.
(14:35):
It's, it's incredible. So we, we tend to see, you know,
events like this, you know, we get a, we get big groups
together as we start to see kindof companies sink money, people
making investments group to groups getting together,
thinking about how do we make this better for everybody?
And then once we start to see frameworks and standards bodies
(14:56):
and we know what's coming, right?
We, I, I think we can all attestto, we saw that when, you know,
the federal government got into the DoD side of things and CMMC,
if you're going to be doing business with contractors and we
saw that formalization. And now we've seen that over the
last couple years come into the channel of people trying to get
prepared for certain levels of CMMC compliance.
That was just an idea a few years ago.
(15:17):
It was like, ah, don't worry about it, it's not a big deal.
And then all of a sudden it became a big deal.
So it feels like NIST is kind offiguring this out, right?
NIST is this standards body that, that, that creates some of
these things. So maybe walk me through where
was NIST a part of this? Where are they at on standards?
(15:38):
How do they look at, at quantum?What's what's the thought there?
Sure. So I actually and met people
from this at the conference and they took part in many panels
and then they actually invited me to have dinner and drinks
with them one of the evenings and got to know them better.
They're just, you know, you think in this as a standard body
(15:58):
and I never, I never think of like, oh, there's actually bunch
of people who make this possible.
So I got to meet those amazing people behind the scenes that do
all the work. And it was amazing.
It was just wonderful meeting them.
Their mood was of course, excited and focused.
Excited because this tech is going to solve so many problems
that today's classical computerssimply cannot.
(16:20):
And they were focused because ofthe work that lies ahead.
So last year in August 2024, they up, they updated their
encryption standards listed to post quantum cryptography, which
federal agencies are already preparing to adopt the new PQC
standards. In the coming months, we're
(16:40):
going to see another post quantum standards update from
bodies like ISO, from IEFT, which is the Internet of
engineering engineering task force.
It's like a standardized organization for Internet
protocols like TCPIP. And then you're going to see 3
GPP, which is telecom. They're going to update their
PQC standards. So it's kind of a ripple effect.
(17:04):
So NIST started at ISO, and thenall the other bodies are going
to eventually, within the next two to three years, adopt the
PQC standards. So that was pretty cool.
And we heard from NASA, NASA, other agencies on the specific
Rd. maps for United States. The date was by January 2027,
(17:24):
January 1st, we have to have a road map in place.
And we heard from the rest of the delegations in EU and AIPAC,
their Rd. maps are we have to have one by middle or end of
2026. So I think US is now revisiting
their their date to road map. And we're going to keep you
posted on all that good information as it comes out.
(17:47):
But one interesting point I willmention that was brought up by
NIST and other bodies there was that companies, our clients are
waiting for supply chains to upgrade their quantum standards
so that they can adopt once these companies have upgraded,
like Microsoft, for example, or Google or other ERMSCRMS and
(18:08):
SAS's service, which is understandable, right?
However, I think there's a miss because the company's data, our
clients data doesn't belong to Microsoft.
It doesn't belong to Google, It doesn't belong to any sales
force or any other CRMS out there.
It belongs to the company. And as as a company, we must
take responsibility to safeguardour data.
(18:30):
I agree it's interesting. I mean, it, it, it fits into the
timelines of what you mentioned,right?
We saw quantum as an idea just afew years ago.
And then these, these things have happened.
The Quantum World Congress happens.
You're we talked about investments already and, and
the, the time horizon is definitely shortening.
And so it's, it's interesting. I mean, the middle of 2026 is
(18:53):
not very far away. So it's awesome to see everybody
kind of getting in front of this, getting ahead of this,
because it wouldn't surprise me.I mean, think about did anybody
that's that's out there listening think that LLMS and
Open AI would drop the product that they dropped in 2023 and it
was be, it would be as effectiveas it was on day one?
(19:14):
No, I, I don't think so. I don't think we expected that
for a little while yet. If you've driven in a self
driving car, did you expect it to be that good yet?
It's not perfect. There's still make errors, but
I'm, I'm constantly surprised athow good these things are
already and how fast they're moving.
So it just seems to me like we have to take we have to take
(19:34):
quantum seriously. I think same same side, right?
And these these timelines line up.
Yeah, let's think about right. Think about for for the partners
listening to this. Obviously, we want to make sure
that we're bringing you these, these, these angles, these
threads, these things that are out there that are relevant.
And then how do we help you translate that?
(19:55):
How does this, how does this go into a meaningful conversation
with your customers? Of course, you've got amazing
folks such as yourself here in the broader Telaris engineering
and architecture team to help you in those conversations.
But I guess Shamara, from your perspective, how do they start
the conversation? What are these questions?
Like, how do we make it so that it doesn't sound like it's just
(20:18):
something out of Star Wars? How do we walk through this?
So very good question. So kind of bringing it back and
landing, this is the way you have the conversation.
The key to this is grounding theconversation in trust and
reality. You don't have to start with
quantum physics. In fact, I would urge you not
to. You start with business impact,
(20:39):
right? So you remind clients that every
major technology chef wants, Josh, like you said, sounded
like science fiction. The Internet.
Who'd have thought? You know, that could be
something. The cloud.
I remember all the hype. Let's move to the cloud.
Well, where is the cloud? You know all that the, the, the
(21:02):
mystery around the cloud a few years ago and now AI, to your
point, it's a was it was sciencefiction at once.
It was something we saw in the movies.
But now we're in a in that reality, we live it and quantum
is going to be just like that. It's just simply the next
chapter and the real risk isn't that it's coming, it's
(21:22):
pretending that it's not coming.So as technology advisors, the
win is when we can translate thecomplex into practical.
Mr. Client, what does this mean for your data?
What does this mean for your compliance?
What does your long term resilience look like?
Clients, especially the ones that are in critical
infrastructures today. So I'm thinking Fedramp, CMMC
(21:47):
clients, banking clients, they should start their cryptography
inventory, their post Quantum pilots and building this into
their long term risk, risk planning.
So I think by framing Quantum asa foresight Rev and fear, we're
giving clients a confidence thatpreparing today isn't just about
(22:08):
buying into hype, it's about protecting the future that
they're working so hard to build.
As you think about things like this, I always like to go.
When we started the security practice years ago, it was who,
who they going after first? Because I remember when we would
talk to customers and, and we would get advisors all excited
about this. We'd go and talk to customers
(22:28):
and they'd go, I'm not big enough.
You, you tell me about these hacks that happened to target
and to these other banks and stuff like I, I, I'm not that
like I'm a, I'm a much smaller whatever.
Nobody knows about me, right. And that was the thesis early
on. And we're sitting here.
We we were sitting there then saying, Hey, do you use the
Internet and do you do business if you checked yet and do you
(22:51):
breathe air if you checked yes to any of those boxes, then
let's have a conversation because it turns out the bad
guys don't care whether you're aone or two person shop or they
don't care if you're 100,000 employee healthcare organization
with a bunch of very valuable black market, you know,
personally identifiable pieces of information.
So from your perspective, who, what industries, I mean, do we
(23:18):
think about the quantum things the same way?
Are there verticals that we think that are the most
impactful first or should be worried or or what's your
thoughts there? So it's such a good point you
bring up. So this is the question I asked
most all the vendors on the Expofloor last week is who is your
ideal client profile right now? Which are the industries that
(23:40):
are coming to you and asking forRd. maps, asking for solutions.
And it was a resounding message across the board.
They said the first ones coming to us are the, is the
governments, different governments across the world.
The D for United States are DoD aerospace.
So that translates into our world as your Fed RAMP clients,
(24:01):
your CMC clients, any SLED clients, any government agency,
whether it's state or federal, those are goods for a talk track
or to start engaging in these conversations.
And it's a close second is the banking industry banking for in
the United States I'm Speaking of.
(24:21):
So banking is already there's a couple of very large banks that
are already on their post quantum on a journey.
They've already done the road map.
They're on their journey now andthey were also at this event.
So banking is a close second in it when having these
conversations. And then after that, I believe
we're just going to see the ripple effect from healthcare
(24:43):
manufacturing, so on and so forth.
I love it. Yeah.
I think it's, it's just like a little bit of before where he or
she who has the most valuable records and is the least armed,
is the most susceptible. And so how do we continue to
help those customers think forward?
(25:04):
And what I like about this is that this, this isn't something
that they're already deeply entrenched in.
This is something that we're going to have to continually
have a lot of education conversations.
We're going to have to, you know, continue to bring vendors
and things like that into the landscape over time, as as
products mature and as as this product commercializes.
And so excited to kind of see where all that goes.
(25:26):
We'll keep a close eye on it. We'll keep bringing that to you
and we'll keep going to these things.
And I think they're, they're super valuable, right for us to
see. How does that time horizon
shorten, expand, you know, does it go in a different dimension?
Who knows? The point is we'll keep an eye
on it and we've got amazing resources.
You're you're hearing from one of them right here to help lead
(25:48):
out that conversation. So I guess as we as we kind of
wrap up some of this talk track here, we know that exponentially
quantum computing will impact security, right?
The things that that took, you know, hours and years before to
crack could potentially take seconds and minutes once quantum
(26:12):
kind of proliferates, right? So those are the things that
we're trying to get ahead of as a security architect.
How did this conference change the way that you will advise
partners or customers going forward?
That's a great, another great question you bring up.
So Telaris, at Telaris we're we are ahead of the curve in many
ways. And if you have worked at all
(26:34):
with our engineering team, it's second to none.
We've got brilliant people on onthis team, on our staff.
So the solutions that I and my team bring, they not only solve
today's business challenges, butour foresight on tomorrow's
emerging tech and emerging threats.
They ensure that our partners and our clients are armed with
the information they need on this growth journey.
(26:57):
So it's the difference between handing someone an umbrella when
it's pouring versus telling them, please carry one because
we can see the storm forming on the horizon.
So our, our conversations, they go beyond using technology to
achieve business outcomes. We focus on turning in the in
those, those outcomes into real impact.
So all that's to say is we can help you have these
(27:19):
conversations. We can help you earn and build
and maintain that trust with your clients.
We're built at Telaris to lead this next wave of this new
frontier. We're ready.
I love it. I think that's a great place to
wrap it, Samara. Awesome stuff, exciting leading
it out, leading the charge on Quantum, kind of first, first
(27:41):
out there. Appreciate all your efforts and
great stuff. Lots of great Nuggets.
Hope everybody can go back, listen to this and just figure
out one or two talk tracks. Think about it with your
customers. Are you thinking about this yet?
Is this on your mind yet? If so, we should have a
conversation. If not, we should have a
conversation. I love when things go that way.
So Samara, I really appreciate you coming on.
(28:02):
Thanks so much. All right, everybody, that wraps
us up for today. As we mentioned in the
beginning, this is kicking off Cyber Security Awareness month.
We got multiple sessions coming through you, coming through for
you in the next couple weeks. So keep an eye out for those.
I'm your host, Josh Lopresto, SVP of Sales Engineering at
Telaris Samira Riaz, Telaris Security Solutions Architect,
(28:25):
field report from the front lines when Quanah meets cyber.
Until next time. Next Level Biztech has been a
production of Telaris Studio 19.Please visit telaris.com For
more information.
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