Data is the foundation of security and innovation in the world of financial services, telecommunications, defense, and technology. Yet, an existential cyber threat looms—the Store Now, Decrypt Later (SNDL) attack. As quantum computing advances, encrypted data stolen today could be effortlessly decrypted in the future, exposing sensitive transactions, intellectual property, classified information, and customer data.
The SNDL threat hinges on nation-state actors and cybercriminals harvesting encrypted data now, banking on future quantum decryption to expose what was once considered secure. While traditional asymmetric encryption methods such as RSA and ECC are mathematically infeasible to break today, quantum breakthroughs enabled by Shor’s algorithm will render them obsolete. Sadly, enterprises won’t know the full impact of this until it is too late.
Ignoring this risk has severe financial, legal, and operational consequences. In the financial, healthcare, and technology sectors, regulations such as PCI DSS, GDPR, and SEC requirements mandate encryption to protect sensitive data. A quantum-vulnerable system would violate these compliance mandates, potentially leading to massive fines and legal liability. In telecommunications and defense, the exposure of encrypted data could create national security risks, prompting government-mandated operational shutdowns and loss of contracts.
Beyond compliance issues, long-term data exposure presents a serious challenge to enterprise trust. Banking transactions, legal files, healthcare – all contain personally identifiable information (PII) that were once securely encrypted could be exposed, leading to reputational damage. Customers and stakeholders may lose confidence in institutions that failed to anticipate this threat. Corporate espionage risks also increase, as proprietary algorithms, intellectual property, and merger and acquisition negotiations stored in encrypted form today could be weaponized against companies in the future.
The cost of mitigating the crisis once it occurs will be significantly higher than addressing it proactively. Organizations that delay action will find themselves scrambling to replace encryption protocols at great expense and with major disruptions to business continuity. Retrofitting encryption across decades of legacy systems without breaking workflows will be a costly and complex undertaking. The reality is that quantum computing development is accelerating, and organizations that fail to act now will be unprepared for the inevitable transition.
To protect against the Store Now, Decrypt Later threat, enterprises should begin by inventorying and classifying encrypted data that could be at risk. They must adopt quantum-resistant encryption, which could be post-quantum public key cryptographic algorithms, implementing hybrid encryption solutions, or using dynamic symmetric keys. Additionally, organizations must assess their vendor security policies to ensure third-party services align with quantum-safe encryption standards.
The quantum threat is no longer a distant possibility but an urgent concern. Leading cybersecurity agencies and intelligence bodies have issued warnings, urging organizations to begin transitioning to post-quantum security today. Waiting until quantum computers become capable of breaking encryption means it will already be too late. Security leaders and CISOs must treat Store Now, Decrypt Later as an active and present danger, ensuring that their encryption strategy is designed not only for today’s threats but for the future as well. Organizations that fail to act now may find themselves in a crisis that could have been avoided, with financial, reputational, and operational consequences that could take years to recover from.