Building quantum-safe foundations for federal data resilience: Quantum computing is no longer a distant concept. It is an emerging capability with real implications for national security. The federal government holds some of the most sensitive data in the world, and the question is not if quantum computing will threaten today’s encryption, but when. Data encrypted today could be decrypted tomorrow. This “harvest now, decrypt later” risk has put agencies on the clock. That urgency is why the conversation around post-quantum cryptography (PQC) has accelerated. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalized its first three PQC standards in August 2024, setting the foundation for how organizations can protect encrypted data against future quantum decryption. But while PQC is essential, it is not a silver bullet. Encryption is the final layer of protection. If it becomes the only thing standing between your data and an adversary, too many other defenses have already failed. The path to quantum resilience starts deeper, in how data is stored, managed and protected every day. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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IBM unveils updated quantum computing products: YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NEW YORK — IBM is continuing its journey to scaling fault-tolerant quantum computers to commercial use with two new product launches that enable fast and accurate computation within their qubit architectures. IBM announced on Wednesday that its new quantum processing unit, Nighthawk, and larger Loon lattice architecture are both slated to advance quantum computing’s benefits at two separate layers of the technology stack.  “Our goal has always been to deliver fault-tolerant quantum computers, but to go on a path where we're always delivering our best platform,” Jay Gambetta, IBM Fellow and director of IBM Research, told reporters Nov. 7 at the company’s Yorktown Heights facility. Nighthawk, a computing chip anticipated to be ready for use by the end of this year, features 120 qubits connected via 218 next-generation tunable couplers. This increased connectivity between qubits supports seamless data processing to solve intricate calculations that demand up to 5,000 two-qubit gates — the specific operations that manipulate quantum data. IBM said it expects to continue expanding the number of gates Nighthawk can process to 7,500 by the end of 2026, with the goal of reaching 10,000 in 2027. More information is posted on the NextGov website.