DigiCert Research Shows Quantum Security Deployment Remains Stuck Despite Enterprise Planning
New research shows enterprise preparation continues to outpace implementation, with deployment advancing just two percentage points over the past year.
Lehi, Utah, July 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DigiCert, a global leader in intelligent trust, today released findings from its second annual global survey on post-quantum cryptography (PQC), revealing that organizations are preparing for the quantum era but making little measurable progress toward deployment. Although 87% of organizations report they are planning, testing or implementing PQC initiatives, deployment has increased by just two percentage points since last year's survey. As a result, only 7% of organizations have deployed quantum-safe or hybrid cryptography across most of their digital certificates, underscoring how much work remains to transition from planning to implementation.
The findings, published in the DigiCert Quantum Readiness Outlook, suggest organizations have moved beyond awareness but are now facing an execution gap. More than half of organizations expect today's encryption standards to be broken within the next five years, while enterprise progress toward becoming quantum ready has only increased by 2% over the past year.
"The move to post-quantum cryptography is part of a broader modernization journey versus just a technology upgrade," said Kevin Hilscher, Senior Director of Product Management at DigiCert. "Organizations that invest in crypto-agility today are building the flexibility to evolve with changing standards, emerging technologies, and future business requirements. That's what creates long-term resilience. However, this is where the research suggests organizations are now struggling: how to translate strategy into enterprise-wide execution."
The urgency continues to grow. Eighty-four percent of organizations believe at least some encrypted data is already vulnerable to harvest now, decrypt later (HNDL) attacks, while the largest share of respondents (39%) expect the transition to quantum-safe cryptography to take three to five years, reinforcing that quantum is no longer viewed as a future technology challenge but a current business risk.
Additional findings include:
- Financial transaction records and banking data were deemed most likely to be targeted first once decryptable, followed by cryptocurrency private keys and wallets.
- 50% have conducted quantum risk assessments, while 44% have developed transition plans and created cryptographic inventories.
- 25.6% identify legacy complexity as the biggest barrier to deployment, replacing uncertainty around standards or executive support.
- Retail reported the lowest levels of preparedness, while Manufacturing emerged as the most divided industry, and MedTech and Telecommunications and Media reported the highest confidence in their readiness.
- The United Kingdom reported the highest share of organizations identifying themselves as leading edge when it comes to quantum readiness (18%), followed by the United States (17%) and Australia (10%).
Resources
- To access the DigiCert Quantum Readiness Outlook, please click here.
- To register for World Quantum Readiness Day, please click here.
- To learn more about Quantum Central, please click here.
- To read the latest Post-Quantum Cryptography For Dummies book, please click here.
Methodology
The findings are based on an independent survey conducted by Propeller Insights on behalf of DigiCert in May 2026. The study surveyed 1,001 IT and cybersecurity decision makers across the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
About DigiCert
DigiCert is a global leader in intelligent trust. We protect the digital world by ensuring the security, privacy, and authenticity of every interaction. Our AI-powered DigiCert ONE platform unifies PKI, DNS, and certificate lifecycle management to secure infrastructure, software, devices, messages, and AI content, agents, and models. Learn why more than 125,000 organizations, including 90% of the Fortune 500, choose DigiCert to stop today’s threats and prepare for a quantum-safe future at www.digicert.com.
Tom Lee DigiCert +44 (0) 7415 561578 tom.lee@digicert.com
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