I Really Do Agree With CISA Quite Often

Even if I think they have the worst logo I've seen in decades, and believe that they were named by the Department of Redundancy Department of the US government. CISA: Prepare now for quantum computers, not when hackers use them

Bask in the 1950s retro-style charm of the CISA logo, and consider that the the full name is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. (I guess security is really important, since they included it twice, and everything.)

Although quantum computing is not commercially available, CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) urges organizations to prepare for the dawn of this new age, which is expected to bring groundbreaking changes in cryptography, and how we protect our secrets.

The agency published a paper earlier in the week [last week now], calling for leaders to start preparing for the migration to stronger secret guarding systems, exploring risk mitigation methods, and participating in developing new standards.

Not that executives will do anything. They won't even update servers/software, adopt 2-factor authentication, network segmentation, or any number of things in the face of ransomware attacks that they can SEE have cost other businesses hundreds of millions of dollars. "We're too small" or "we can't afford it" or whatever bit of denial that is prevalent today.

Experts in the field widely accept that the currently experimental quantum computers will achieve superiority over conventional systems by the end of the decade and will quickly render them obsolete with subsequent capability leaps.

But executives will see that statement as a prediction. Like reading tea leaves or staring into a crystal ball. They will do nothing.

And then, in 9 or 11 years or so, when their security completely falls apart, they will scream "Why didn't you warn us?!?!" Or something equally stupid.

When I worked in information technology, one of my jobs was disaster-recovery planning. Everyone agreed that one of the key elements to surviving a disaster that might impact the business (fire, flood, whatever) was to keep your résumé updated on your PC at home. I think that applies to the folks currently working in cybersecurity as well.

As for the logo that CISA adopted, it always reminds me of this part of the introduction of Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow.