Most enterprises now have post-quantum cryptography initiatives underway. The problem is that very few have implemented quantum-safe protections across their infrastructure.

This gap was highlighted recently in a survey released by digital trust company DigiCert Inc. The report’s findings indicated that 87% of organizations were planning, testing or implementing post-quantum cryptography initiatives, while only 7% had deployed quantum-safe or hybrid cryptography across most of their digital certificates.

The survey offered one more example of the challenges ahead for enterprises seeking to protect critical systems in a world where cryptographic algorithms may become obsolete, leaving systems vulnerable to attack.

“Post-quantum migration will test enterprise resilience as much as cryptographic strength,” said theCUBE Research’s Krista Case. “Cryptography is deeply embedded across applications, infrastructure and critical business processes, often through dependencies organizations don’t fully understand. Crypto-agility gives enterprises a way to discover, prioritize and change those dependencies without putting business operations at risk. That capability needs to be built before quantum risk becomes an operational deadline.”

Quantum risk and what it will take for enterprises to prepare for a post-quantum world will be the central focus of DigiCert’s World Quantum Readiness Day 2026 virtual event, with coverage by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, on Sept. 17. Tune in to hear from security leaders and public key infrastructure teams about how to inventory cryptographic assets, prioritize migration, evaluate quantum-safe algorithms and prepare for the quantum era. (* Disclosure below.)

Agents in post-quantum world

With the rapid adoption of enterprise artificial intelligence, DigiCert has been focused on a new AI Trust architecture to help organizations secure AI systems and their outputs, along with new capabilities to help secure autonomous agents and artificial intelligence models. In April, the company introduced a unified trust layer that spans AI agents, models and content and embeds cryptographic verification across the AI lifecycle.

Rapid adoption of AI agents by enterprises has added new complexity to the security picture as organizations prepare for the demands of post-quantum cryptography. Reliance on agents for key enterprise tasks has increased the need for identity-based governance for autonomous systems and ways to validate model integrity.

As part of DigiCert’s AI Agent Trust initiative, the company also offers AI Agent Passport, which allows organizations to define exactly what an agent can access, what it can do and where it can operate, creating enforceable, auditable boundaries for autonomous actions.

“Agentic AI represents an architectural shift from human-speed identity and security to autonomous systems operating at machine speed,” said theCUBE Research’s John Furrier. “Identity becomes the new control plane, but identity alone isn’t enough. Enterprises need cryptographically verifiable trust that establishes who an agent represents, what it’s authorized to do and whether that authority can be trusted across organizational boundaries. DigiCert’s Agent Passport approach brings proven internet-scale trust principles into this emerging agentic architecture.”

Shift from awareness to implementation

As enterprises modernize applications and embed AI across the software development life cycle, cryptographic dependencies are becoming more distributed, automated and difficult to inventory. TheCUBE Research’s AppDev findings show that 75% of enterprises use multiple disparate tools across their development lifecycle, highlighting the complexity and inefficiency organizations already face in managing modern software environments.

The theme of this year’s DigiCert World Quantum Readiness Day event – “From Blueprint to Build” – underscores the shift taking place from quantum awareness to implementation. It is part of a larger narrative surrounding enterprise software modernization, according to theCUBE Research’s Paul Nashawaty.

“World Quantum Readiness Day is an important reminder that post-quantum readiness is not simply a cybersecurity or infrastructure problem; it is rapidly becoming an application architecture and software lifecycle challenge,” Nashawaty said. “The transition to post-quantum cryptography will add another layer of complexity, requiring development teams to build crypto-agility, automated certificate management and security validation directly into CI/CD pipelines. The organizations that begin treating quantum readiness as a software modernization initiative today, not a future compliance exercise, will be better positioned to migrate without disrupting application delivery tomorrow.”

TheCUBE event coverage

Don’t miss theCUBE’s interviews during DigiCert’s World Quantum Readiness Day virtual event, Sept. 17. Plus, you can watch theCUBE’s exclusive content on demand after each session.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch theCUBE’s interviews during DigiCert’s World Quantum Readiness Day virtual event, Sept. 17, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s interview series on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE podcasts

SiliconANGLE’s “theCUBE Pod” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, which you can enjoy while on the go. During each podcast, SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier and Dave Vellante unpack the biggest trends in enterprise tech — from AI and cloud to regulation and workplace culture — with exclusive context and analysis.

SiliconANGLE also produces our weekly “Breaking Analysis” program, where Dave Vellante examines the top stories in enterprise tech, combining insights from theCUBE with spending data from Enterprise Technology Research, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Guests

During theCUBE’s interviews as part of DigiCert’s World Quantum Readiness Day virtual event, Sept. 17, company executives and industry experts from DigiCert, Microsoft, AWS, evolutionQ, Atea and Thales, among others, will discuss how security leaders are assessing cryptographic risk, planning migration and preparing for the quantum era.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for DigiCert’s World Quantum Readiness Day virtual event. Neither DigiCert, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Image: SiliconANGLE