PQC Transition
Post-Quantum Readiness Starts With Visibility
Your organisation relies on cryptography every day: authentication, customer portals, APIs, certificates, integrations, document systems and secure communications.
Ariadne Thread Solutions helps organisations identify where post-quantum risk affects their systems and sensitive data, develop a practical transition roadmap, and implement the software and access-control changes required to protect trust and continuity.
The Quantum Threat Is a Future Technology Risk With Present-Day Consequences
A cryptographically relevant quantum computer may not yet exist. But organisations cannot afford to wait for certainty before preparing.
Sensitive information stolen today may remain valuable for years: legal documents, financial records, identity information, health information, commercial agreements, intellectual property, customer records, privileged communications and authentication data.
If that information is protected using cryptography that later becomes vulnerable, today’s encrypted data may become tomorrow’s exposure.
Post-quantum readiness therefore begins before migration. It begins with visibility:
- What sensitive data does the organisation hold?
- Which systems protect it?
- Where is traditional asymmetric cryptography embedded?
- Which third-party products and vendors create dependencies?
- Which bespoke systems will require redevelopment or reinforcement?
- What must be planned now to protect customer confidence later?
PQC transition is not only a cryptography issue. It is a data protection, system continuity and customer-trust issue.
Official Australia’s Recommended PQC Transition Timeline Has Already Started
By the end of 2026
Have a refined PQC transition plan
Your plan should account for security goals, risk tolerance, technology dependencies and the value and confidentiality life of your data.
By the end of 2028
Start transitioning critical systems and data
Priority should go to systems essential to operations, systems handling long-life sensitive information, and systems likely to be difficult or time-consuming to update.
By the end of 2030
Complete the PQC transition
Organisations should have moved away from traditional asymmetric cryptography in line with relevant ASD guidance.
After 2030
Monitor, validate and maintain
PQC implementation will require continuing assurance, performance monitoring, vulnerability management and adjustment as standards and threats evolve.
The dates and milestones above reflect ASD’s current published guidance for PQC transition planning. nder timeline
From Quantum-Risk Visibility to Secure System Change
Most organisations will not need to design cryptographic algorithms. They will need to understand where cryptography is used, identify which data and systems matter most, engage their vendors intelligently, modernise bespoke software and strengthen the access-control and integration layers on which trust depends.
Ariadne supports that journey in three connected stages.
Stage One: PQC Readiness Assessment
A PQC transition cannot begin with assumptions. It begins by locating systems, data flows and dependencies that rely on traditional asymmetric cryptography or long-term confidentiality.
We work with leadership and technical stakeholders to establish a practical view of your exposure, your priorities and the decisions that require executive attention.
Activities may include
- Business-critical system mapping
- Identification of long-life sensitive information
- Review of customer-facing portals, identity flows, APIs and integrations
- Review of certificates, TLS dependencies, authentication and signature-related workflows
- Identification of bespoke, legacy or difficult-to-update systems
- Initial review of cloud, SaaS, vendor and platform dependencies
- Assessment of business, legal, customer-trust and continuity implications
- Initial cryptographic dependency register or high-level CBOM foundation
The purpose of the readiness assessment is not to recommend unnecessary change. It is to identify where change matters, where evidence is still needed and where early planning reduces later disruption.
ASD’s LATICE transition framework begins with locating and inventorying traditional asymmetric cryptography, assessing the value and sensitivity of systems and data, and triaging priorities. ASD also identifies a cryptographic bill of materials, or CBOM, as an effective method for capturing cryptographic dependencies at system and environment levels.
Stage Two: Create a Practical Transition Roadmap
Once exposure is understood, organisations need a roadmap that leadership can fund, govern and defend.
Ariadne translates technical findings into an actionable transition strategy covering business priorities, system dependencies, vendor decisions, implementation sequencing and risk controls.
Activities may include
- Transition prioritisation by data sensitivity, system criticality and complexity
- Identification of vendor-controlled versus organisation-controlled change
- Review of interoperability, legacy system and procurement constraints
- Sequencing for bespoke software, customer portals, integrations and internal systems
- Identification of access-control and identity architecture improvements
- Transition governance and reporting structure
- Executive briefings for board, management or risk committees
- Recommendations for pilots, proof-of-concept work or deeper technical design
A transition roadmap should tell leadership what must change, why it matters, who controls the dependency and what decision is required next.
Stage Three: Secure System Modernisation and Implementation Support
For organisations using bespoke applications, complex integrations, sensitive portals or specialised operational workflows, PQC transition may require more than vendor upgrades.
It may require software redevelopment, strengthened access control, new integration patterns, improved auditability, updated certificate or key-related workflows, and architecture designed for continuing cryptographic change.
Ariadne helps organisations implement the system changes required by their transition roadmap, using standardised and reputable components appropriate to the client’s architecture, vendors and applicable guidance.
Implementation capabilities
- Secure redevelopment of bespoke web, mobile and internal applications
- Access-control and authorisation workflow reinforcement
- Authentication and identity-integration modernisation
- API and service-to-service security improvement
- Customer portal and administrative interface hardening
- Secure document and sensitive-data workflow design
- Integration redevelopment where cryptographic dependencies change
- System auditability, event logging and accountability improvements
- Architecture designed for future cryptographic agility
- Implementation documentation and operational handover
Ariadne’s implementation role is to support secure system transition, where essential – redevelopment and re-integration around approved and appropriate cryptographic technologies. Selection and deployment of cryptographic algorithms must follow applicable standards, vendor guidance, verified implementations and the organisation’s security obligations.
Where Transition Risks May Be Hiding
PQC exposure is rarely limited to one encryption product. Traditional asymmetric cryptography may be present across systems, services and vendor relationships.
Your organisation does not need every answer before beginning. It needs a structured way to find the answers that affect risk, investment and customer trust.
ASD specifically recommends considering cloud services, applications, hardware and operational technology during the location and inventory stage because each may rely on traditional asymmetric cryptography for digital signatures, authentication or encryption of data in transit.
Why Ariadne Thread Solutions?
PQC transition is not only about replacing cryptographic primitives. It is about understanding where trust lives inside real systems — and being able to change those systems without compromising operations.
Ariadne brings together the capabilities required for organisations whose risk cannot be solved by a generic report alone.
Business-first readiness
We connect technical exposure with business impact, customer trust, sensitive data and operational priorities.
Practical system understanding
We examine how risk appears in applications, portals, access-control workflows, APIs, integrations and vendor dependencies.
Implementation capability
Where bespoke systems require reinforcement or redevelopment, we can help translate the roadmap into secure technical change.
Controlled knowledge capability
Where transition involves complex documentation, evidence and internal decision-making, we can build private knowledge systems that make approved information usable.
We help organisations move from “we know PQC matters” to “we know what we must do next – and we have a credible way to do it” – while providing unique customisation abilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does PQC matter if quantum computers cannot yet break today’s encryption?
Yes, for organisations holding information that must remain confidential for years. Data collected now may be exposed later if it was protected by cryptography that becomes vulnerable. Preparation also takes time because systems, vendors, applications and integrations must first be identified and prioritised. ASD expressly identifies both long transition lead times and “harvest now, decrypt later” risk as reasons to act now.
Is PQC only relevant to government or large enterprises?
No. Organisations holding long-life confidential data, operating customer portals, supplying software to privacy-sensitive clients or maintaining bespoke systems may all have transition considerations. The appropriate level of work depends on data value, system criticality, dependency complexity and risk tolerance.
Do we need to replace every system immediately?
No. A credible program begins by locating dependencies, assessing system and data sensitivity, triaging priorities and developing a plan. Critical systems and long-life sensitive data should receive attention first. This staged approach aligns with ASD’s LATICE framework and its published transition milestones.
Does Ariadne develop new cryptographic algorithms?
No**. Our role is to help organisations understand exposure, plan their transition and modernise the systems, integrations and access-control functions affected by that transition. Cryptographic implementations should use widely adopted standards, verified components and relevant vendor or security guidance.
2) Are you prepared enough financially to back such an initiative?
If yes – Let’s talk ))
What standards now exist for post-quantum cryptography?
NIST finalised three principal PQC standards in August 2024: FIPS 203 for ML-KEM key establishment, FIPS 204 for ML-DSA digital signatures and FIPS 205 for SLH-DSA digital signatures. NIST states that these standards provide the foundation for most PQC deployments and that organisations should begin migration planning and implementation.
How do your AI knowledge systems relate to PQC transition?
Good question. They are designed to help keep, organize and deliver to the authorised company audiences the internal company knowledge.
The transition materials match the description ideally – so our knowledge management solutions can help teams access approved internal transition materials such as system inventories, vendor responses, policies, audit reports, technical documentation and remediation decisions. They support information retrieval and governance; they do not replace security assurance or accountable technical judgement.
Your PQC Transition Plan Should Not Begin at the Deadline
