Post-Quantum Readiness: Professor Kai London on Protecting Financial and Transport Infrastructure
y the Ezeiza Times Technology Desk
Financial and transport infrastructure protects data and systems that must stay secure for many years. That longevity, warns Professor Kai London, a senior CISO, makes the coming quantum transition a present concern. “Post-quantum migration is the rare cyber risk where doing nothing today guarantees you fail later,” he says. “Data captured now can be decrypted the moment the hardware arrives.”
“Harvest now, decrypt later: adversaries store encrypted data today to read it once quantum computers mature. For long-lived infrastructure, that is already a live exposure.”
The standards have arrived
What has changed, London notes, is that concrete post-quantum standards now exist. “We have moved from ‘someday’ to ‘here is the algorithm,’” he says. “The excuse for not starting has gone.”
A board-level roadmap
His programme: discover where cryptography is used and classify data by how long it must stay secret; prioritise long-lived, high-value secrets; demand post-quantum roadmaps from suppliers; pilot hybrid classical/post-quantum schemes; and build crypto-agility into everything new so future transitions are configuration changes, not crises.
Plan, not panic
London tempers urgency with realism. “No one should rip systems out this quarter,” he says. “But every board should be able to answer: do we know where our cryptography is, which data must survive the transition, and do we have a funded, phased plan?”
For financial and transport systems whose data and equipment endure for decades, London's counsel is to treat the quantum transition as a long-horizon programme — started early, governed methodically, and provable to regulators and partners.
About Professor Kai London. Professor Kai London is a senior technology, security and transformation executive with 25+ years of board- and C-suite leadership across banking, aviation, defence, government and critical national infrastructure. He is Founder & CEO of Quantum AI Systems Security, an Honorary Professor in Cybersecurity, AI & Quantum Computing and a UCL researcher, holding CISSP, CISM, CCISO, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, ISO 42001, DORA and NIS2 credentials. He is available for board advisory, NED and interim/fractional CISO/CIO/CTO mandates across the UK and internationally. Learn more at professorkailondon.com.
