The Last Lock Before the Quantum Dawn | Dr. Alawi Al-Saggaf | ICQIA 2026

The threat has already started. Not when quantum computers arrive, but now. In this ICQIA 2026 session, Dr. Alawi Abdulrahman Al-Saggaf, from the Department of Information and Computer Science and the IRC for Intelligent Secure Systems at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, explains why the transition window between the classical and quantum eras is the critical period for digital trust. Everything we rely on daily, online banking, email, blockchain, digital identity, smart cities, rests on the same foundation: public key cryptography. Shor's algorithm, published in 1994, breaks the mathematical problems that foundation depends on, integer factorisation and discrete logarithms, which means RSA-2048 and elliptic curve cryptography both fall in the quantum era. Grover's algorithm, published in 1996, halves the effective security of symmetric encryption, which is why AES-128 is no longer recommended and AES-256 is now the baseline. The session then addresses the objection that powerful quantum computers do not exist yet. Adversaries are already harvesting encrypted data and storing it to decrypt later, a strategy that targets anything requiring long-term confidentiality: government records, healthcare data, research, financial information. The answer is post-quantum cryptography, classical algorithms designed to resist quantum attack, built on lattice problems, isogenies and hash-based constructions, now standardised in FIPS 203 and 204. But standardisation is the easy part. Deployment is harder: organisations hold thousands of cryptographic assets, the new keys and signatures are significantly larger, and compliance requirements must follow. His closing argument: build a cryptographic inventory, identify systems needing long-term confidentiality, adopt cryptographic agility so algorithms can be swapped without redesigning systems, test in controlled environments, and migrate gradually. The challenge is no longer understanding the quantum threat. It is preparing for the transition before the threat becomes real. In this session: 0:00 Introduction 1:01 What this talk covers 2:18 What digital trust rests on 3:36 Shor's algorithm and the quantum threat 6:30 Grover's algorithm and symmetric encryption 8:06 Quantum impact on today's cryptography 9:45 Harvest now, decrypt later 11:04 What post-quantum cryptography is 12:32 The hard problems PQC is built on 13:30 FIPS 203 and 204, and why deployment is the hard part 14:31 Preparing for the transition 15:19 Closing ICQIA 2026, the International Conference on Quantum Intelligence and AI Applications, is organised by Entipivi Digital Advisory. Conference: https://entipivi.com/icqia2026.html Advisory and training: https://entipivi.com LinkedIn:   / entipivi   #postquantumcryptography #quantumcomputing #entipivi #cybersecurity #ICQIA2026