Enterprises have spent years fortifying the perimeter with firewalls, SASE frameworks and zero trust controls. But connectivity now spans clouds, edge sites, remote teams and partner ecosystems, creating an attack surface that moves faster than perimeter tools can contain.
 

Recent breaches highlight this shift.
 

• More than a million records were exposed in a university incident traced to stolen credentials, showing how traditional perimeter defenses cannot compensate for weak identity assurance or fragile cryptographic layers.¹
• A financial-services vendor breach followed a similar pattern: unclear entry points created outsized damage because sensitive data lacked end-to-end protection.¹
   

Trust expectations are rising just as threats grow more complex.
 

• Only 13% of consumers feel fully secure when opening new accounts, and nearly 40% say the strength of identity assurance shapes how much they trust a brand. Businesses sense the pressure.²
  
  
• 72% expect AI-generated fraud to emerge as one of their biggest challenges, even as they rely on AI to strengthen their defences.²
   

This is pushing security leaders to rethink the foundation their entire stack runs on.

Every asset protected by perimeter tools relies on something more fundamental: the cryptographic keys that secure data at rest, in motion and in use. These keys form the data’s DNA. They establish trust between applications, devices and transactions, and determine whether information stays protected as it moves across the enterprise.

The foundation becomes more important as organisations rebalance workloads between cloud and on-premise environments for cost, latency or security reasons. Data crosses platforms, architectures and vendors routinely, and each handoff relies on the strength of the underlying keys.

Today’s widely used algorithms — RSA and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) — were built around mathematical problems that are extremely difficult for classical computers to solve. The shift toward quantum computing changes the equation.

Quantum algorithms can break the mathematical problems underpinning RSA and ECC. Current systems still work, but their long-term reliability can’t be assumed. As data becomes more mobile and distributed, the durability of its cryptographic "DNA" becomes a priority rather than an afterthought.
 

Preparing for Q-Day
Discussions around Q-Day reflect the industry’s shift from cryptographic standards designed for classical computing to standards designed for a quantum-capable world. Quantum-enabled adversaries will focus on the deepest layer of the security stack: the keys that anchor trust across applications, networks and devices.

What NIST signals
NIST’s draft guidance makes the transition explicit. Organisations should begin phasing out existing encryption methods now and continue through 2030. By 2035, RSA and ECC will no longer be permitted, marking the full move to post-quantum cryptography. NIST also notes that harvest-now-decrypt-later activity is already occurring, which means encrypted data captured today may be exposed once quantum capabilities mature.³

Perimeter tools remain essential, but they cannot offset weak or outdated cryptographic keys. This creates a floor-level vulnerability in the security stack, where the foundational layer beneath applications, networks and access controls becomes the primary target for quantum-capable adversaries. Strength at this layer determines whether data stays protected regardless of how powerful an attacker’s computation becomes.
 

This is why security strategies are moving toward the core data layer. When the keys are quantum-safe, the protection travels with the data across every environment.
 

• Federal agencies have already been instructed to begin migrating to post-quantum cryptography because encrypted data captured today may be decrypted in the future through harvest-now-decrypt-later methods. The shift is ongoing rather than a single upgrade, requiring recurring cryptographic inventories, updated cost models and prioritisation of exposed systems.⁴

The private sector is moving in parallel. Major corporations are investing heavily in quantum technologies to secure foundational cryptographic layers.
 

• IBM has demonstrated practical gains, improving fraud detection accuracy and reducing false negatives by 5% using quantum-enabled techniques.
• The quantum computing market is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2035, with early adopters expected to capture up to 90% of the value created.⁵

Securing the core data layer is becoming a central requirement for organisations preparing for quantum era risks.

Singtel’s Hybrid Quantum-Safe Network (QSN) upgrades the core cryptographic layer of the enterprise by combining Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) to deliver infrastructure-grade, quantum-safe protection across all environments.

QKD secures high-bandwidth, mission-critical links through physics-based key exchange, while PQC extends protection to branches, remote sites, cloud environments and overseas operations where QKD hardware is impractical.

This hybrid architecture overcomes the distance limits of fibre-based QKD and enables quantum-safe key distribution across conventional networks, supported by ID Quantique’s QKD platform and Palo Alto Networks’ PQC capabilities.

Delivered as flexible deployment models or managed security services, Hybrid QSN allows healthcare, financial services, critical infrastructure and multinational organisations to secure both central and distributed locations, future-proofing their data layer without waiting for quantum disruption to arrive.

Build a resilient architecture for a quantum-safe world.