Draft, not yet released. In stewardship review. Not indexed until the first approved release.

Readings from the other desks

The cybersecurity and cryptography baseline is read through each steward’s lens, then once as a whole. Each lens is a projection of reviewed findings, not a separate argument. The other desks’ own editions of this subject are listed first, as cross-references, not copies.

15 min read0 figures8 tables35 notesNR-XTECH-CRYPTO-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Contents
  1. ·Edition home
  2. ·Executive summary
  3. 1Cryptography is infrastructure under change
  4. 2Key findings
  5. 3Systems and sectors at baseline
  6. 4Risks and capability
  7. 5Signature lag while key agreement migrates
  8. 6Readings from the other desks
    1. 6.1 The other desks’ editions of this subject
    2. 6.2 Three lenses
    3. 6.3 Standards, Academy and steward contributions
    4. 6.4 GCRI reading: the model card
    5. 6.5 Global Risks Forum reading: editorial essays
    6. 6.6 Global Risks Alliance reading: 2027 cybersecurity and cryptography readiness pack
    7. 6.7 Nexus Standards reading: standards and regulatory watch
    8. 6.8 Risk Academy reading: literature and evidence review, science and assessments
  9. 7The 2027 agenda
  10. 8Systems in depth
  11. AMethodology
  12. BData appendix
  13. CReferences and record
  14. ·Complete edition, for print

6.1The other desks’ editions of this subject

Federation: each desk writes its own edition for the subjects in its remit. Until a desk releases, its edition shows its frame and the reading this edition printed for it.

DeskEditionStateIdentifier
GCRI Systems EvidenceNo edition of this subject at this desk in the 2026 Baseline cycleNot in this cycle
GRF Public DeliberationOutside this desk’s remitNot in remit
GRA Capital ReadinessOutside this desk’s remitNot in remit
Standards ProgressNo edition of this subject at this desk in the 2026 Baseline cycleNot in this cycle
Academy CapabilityNo edition of this subject at this desk in the 2026 Baseline cycleNot in this cycle
Index MeasurementOutside this desk’s remitNot in remit

6.2Three lenses

One edition, read by each steward. The lens of this site comes first.

GCRI · KEY T

Technical Truth

The evidence supports reading cybersecurity and cryptography as protective infrastructure under change. Standards are finalised, key agreement has moved, and signatures and long-life devices have not. Evidence is strongest for standards and official threat records, and weakest for migration progress, cost and workforce.

CRY-001 · GOV-004 · INF-005 · SYS-012

GRF · KEY M

Public Meaning

For most people the story arrives as a message about encryption, a breach notice or a ransomware headline. The baseline asks that public debate separate standards from deployment, and ordinary vulnerabilities from distant machines.

CRY-001 · THR-009 · INF-006

GRA · KEY F

Capital Meaning

Readiness implications only. Breach and ransomware costs come from vendors and are weak evidence1819. Migration has costs that fall on operators. Nothing here is advice, a rating or an approval.

FIN-010 · CRY-001

NEXUS

Synthesis

Cryptography is well described by standards and thinly measured as a system. The 2027 programme should bind migration progress, publish a comparable deployment table and test the signature pathway before the next hardware milestone.

SYS-012 · C-01 · C-02

6.3Standards, Academy and steward contributions

How the Nexus Standards drafts, the Risk Academy and the three stewards feed each quarterly edition for cybersecurity and cryptography. The standards are a preparatory working draft (2026) and are cited as drafts, never as adopted standards.

Table 6.1The quarterly rhythm every edition follows
QuarterEditionQuestionBoundary
Q1State and AgendaWhat matters this year, and what is the starting position?observed baseline stays distinct from planned work
Q2Evidence and BuildWhat new evidence and capability exist?a configured capability is not a validated result
Q3Stress Test and ReadinessWhat do scenarios and tests show?simulated loss or performance is not observed impact
Q4Annual Synthesis and RenewalWhat changed in the year, and what renews?release follows review, not event publicity deadlines
Table 6.2Who contributes what each quarter
Steward or bodyRoleContribution route
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI Canada)Lead Institution and Consortium Secretariat; publisher of record; technical truth (key T)science and practice communities · GCRI gateway
The Global Risks Forum (GRF)leadership, dialogue and the Universe programme; public meaning (key M)policy, Universe and national adoption · GRF gateway
The Global Risks Alliance (GRA)finance, insurance and development readiness; capital meaning (key F)finance and insurance · GRA gateway
Nexus Standardspreparatory drafts on vocabulary, hazards, indicators and methodsStandards site · working groups HAZ, IND, MTH, FIN, AI
Risk Academylearning pathways tied to the agenda questionsAcademy gateway · learning by review
Nexus Standards and Academytechnology chapter inputs: GCRI evidence, NXS standards, RA capabilitytechnology editorial board

Standards drafts used in this edition

  • Risk vocabulary NRS-C1 (424 terms) for terms in the glossary
  • Hazard atlas NHS-1 1.1.0 (905 hazards in 120 families) for risk objects
  • Seven risk classes: global, catastrophic, existential, emerging, planetary, exponential, frontier-tech

Standards calendar to watch

  • Founding calls from 20 October 2026; working groups meet from 5 November 2026
  • Inaugural Global Standards Council session, 12 January 2027
  • Quarterly reviews in March, June, September and December, aligned with each edition

6.4GCRI reading: the model card

GCRI’s reading of this edition is its model card: what the national model is, what it computes and where it stops. It is printed in full in Annex A, with the methods it belongs to. Annex A, methodology

6.5Global Risks Forum reading: editorial essays

Four signed essays by the Reports editorial team set out the positions this edition takes. They are interpretation, labelled as such; the evidence they draw on is in the findings register.

NIST finished three standards in 2024. Deployment is a different record, and it is moving at different speeds for key agreement and signatures. Keeping them apart avoids both alarm and complacency.

EDITORIAL ESSAY · 01

Standards are not deployment

Exploited known vulnerabilities, ransomware and fraud account for the reported harm. A distant machine is a planning question; an unpatched router is an incident now.

EDITORIAL ESSAY · 02

Ordinary causes dominate

Telemetry from vendors is useful and unaudited. This edition labels each vendor figure and asks for primary data before costs and payments are compared.

EDITORIAL ESSAY · 03

Vendor evidence needs a label

No consolidated series of migration progress was found. A shared indicator table would show where inventory, signatures and devices are stuck.

EDITORIAL ESSAY · 04

Measurement is the missing layer

6.6Global Risks Alliance reading: 2027 cybersecurity and cryptography readiness pack

The registers that open the 2027 global cycle. At baseline each is initialised from this edition.

Table 6.32027 cybersecurity and cryptography readiness pack
ItemRegisterState at baselineFirst 2027 entry
E1Cybersecurity and Cryptography risk state deltabaseline set by this editionchanges against the baseline
E2WEFH+B state deltafive global system readings setindicator updates and freshness
E3Agenda and Portfolio movementeight agenda items · 6 proposed objectsadmission decisions
E4Federation delivery registernational chapters in preparationnational chapters
E5Consortium capability registernational consortia formingfirst contributions
E6Leadership questions and challengesnone yetfirst challenge log
E7Foundry technical statenational environments preparedfirst federation cut
E8Publication candidatestwelve findings carried forwardPUBLISH · HOLD dispositions
E9Universe readinessone candidate missionadmission and role spine
E10Correction registernonefirst federation-wide cycle

Publication dispositions

  • Publish
  • Hold
  • Needs evidence
  • Restricted
  • Superseded

6.7Nexus Standards reading: standards and regulatory watch

Instruments and published guidance that shape the systems in this edition, by status on the retrieval date. The edition assesses no one’s compliance.

  • IN FORCE
  • PUBLISHED
  • DRAFT
  • PUBLISHED · VOLUNTARY
Table 6.4Standards and regulatory watch
InstrumentBodyScopeStatusRelevance
FIPS 203, 204 and 205123NISTUS, used globallyPUBLISHED 2024post-quantum algorithms
NIST IR 8547 initial public draft44NISTUSDRAFT 2024migration
NIST SP 800-2277NISTUSPUBLISHED 2025key-encapsulation guidance
NIST SP 800-2328NISTUSPUBLISHED 2025lightweight cryptography
NIST CSF 2.09NISTglobal, voluntaryPUBLISHED · VOLUNTARYrisk outcomes
NCSC migration timelines10UK NCSCUKPUBLISHED 2025timeline
EU coordinated roadmap1131European Commission and Member StatesEUPUBLISHED 2025migration milestones
CNSA 2.030NSAUS national security systemsPUBLISHEDmigration timetable
Cyber Resilience Act27European UnionEUIN FORCE · STAGEDproduct duties
SEC cybersecurity disclosure rules21US SECUS listed companiesIN FORCEincident disclosure

Changed since 2024

  • Post-close, context only: NIST published the final IR 8547 transition report on 27 October 20265
  • NIST published SP 800-227 on key encapsulation in September 2025 and SP 800-232 on lightweight cryptography in August 202578
  • The UK NCSC published its migration timelines in March 202510

To watch in 2027

  • The HQC draft standard expected about a year after March 20256
  • National roadmaps due under the EU coordinated roadmap1131
  • Staged application dates of the EU Cyber Resilience Act27

6.8Risk Academy reading: literature and evidence review, science and assessments

The review behind this edition covers cybersecurity and cryptography assessments, peer-reviewed science and the institutional reports that bind its findings. Systematic reviews for each agenda item begin in 2027.

Review protocol

Question
What does the published evidence establish about cybersecurity and advanced cryptography as infrastructure and its couplings?
Sources searched
preprints and journals; standards bodies and agencies; roadmaps and regulation; threat and cost reports
Window
releases available at evidence close, 30 September 2026
Selection
sources that bind or contextualise a finding in this edition
Next step
systematic reviews for agenda items 01 to 05 in 2027
Table 6.5Peer-reviewed science and preprints
ReferenceTypeYearRoleUsed for
Gidney22preprint2025supportsresource estimate
Shor37journal article1997frameworkfactoring algorithm
Mosca38journal article2018frameworkmigration timing
Table 6.6Institutional flagships
ReferenceIssuerYearRoleUsed for
Signal triple ratchet post25protocol post2025contextmessaging design
Apple PQ3 post26protocol post2024contextmessaging design
OpenSSH page24project documentation2025supportsprotocol default
RFC 844643IETF standard2018frameworkTLS 1.3
Table 6.7Standards, policy and strategies
ReferenceIssuerYearRoleUsed for
NIST FIPS 203, 204 and 205123NIST2024supportsstandards
NIST IR 8547 initial draft44NIST2024supportstransition plan
NCSC timelines10UK NCSC2025supportstimeline
EU roadmap page11European Commission2025supportsroadmap date
CSF 2.09NIST2024contextrisk framework
NIST IR 854532NIST2025contextfourth-round status
NIST SP 1800-3839NIST NCCoE2023contextmigration practice guide
OMB M-23-0241US OMB2022contextfederal inventory memorandum
Table 6.8Threat, cost and field overviews
ReferenceIssuerYearRoleUsed for
FBI IC3 report15FBI2025supportscomplaints and losses
ENISA Threat Landscape 202516ENISA2025supportsincident count
Cost of a Data Breach 202618IBM2026contextvendor cost
Crypto crime ransomware analysis19Chainalysis2026contextvendor payments
Workforce study20ISC22025supportsskills needs
Data Breach Investigations page17Verizon2026contextvendor sample
Digital Defense Report36Microsoft2025contextvendor report

Where the evidence agrees

  • Post-quantum standards are finalised and migration should begin110
  • Exploited known vulnerabilities recur across sources1417
  • Signatures are harder to migrate than key agreement23

Where it is unsettled

  • When a cryptographically relevant machine could exist2238
  • How fast sectors are migrating, since no common series exists12
  • How vendor cost and payment estimates compare with primary data1819

Notes

Numbers are the edition’s reference numbers, so a note reads the same in every chapter. The full list, with every source and its licence, is in Annex C. Annex C, references

  1. 18IBM and Ponemon Institute (eds.), Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026 (landing page; global average USD 4.99 million, up 12%; AI-driven attacks up 56%). IBM, Armonk. Vendor report, weak evidence; the full report was not opened. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  2. 19Chainalysis (ed.), ransomware analysis (blog page; more than USD 820 million on-chain in 2025, down 8% from an updated USD 892 million for 2024; original 2024 estimate USD 813 million). Chainalysis, New York. Vendor estimate, weak evidence. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  3. 1NIST (ed.), Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism Standard, FIPS 203 (publication page; final 13 August 2024; ML-KEM-512, ML-KEM-768 and ML-KEM-1024; initial draft 24 August 2023). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  4. 2NIST (ed.), Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Standard, FIPS 204 (publication page; final 13 August 2024; ML-DSA). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  5. 3NIST (ed.), Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Standard, FIPS 205 (publication page; final 13 August 2024; SLH-DSA, based on SPHINCS+). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  6. 44NIST (ed.), Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards, NIST IR 8547, initial public draft (draft PDF, November 2024; Tables 2 and 4: for quantum-vulnerable signature and key-establishment schemes at 112 bits of security strength, deprecated after 2030 and disallowed after 2035, and at 128 bits or more, disallowed after 2035; the cover sheet added on withdrawal on 27 October 2026 is not used). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  7. 7NIST (ed.), Recommendations for Key-Encapsulation Mechanisms, SP 800-227 (publication page; final 18 September 2025). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  8. 8NIST (ed.), Ascon-Based Lightweight Cryptography Standards for Constrained Devices, SP 800-232 (publication page; final 13 August 2025; Ascon-AEAD128, Ascon-Hash256, Ascon-XOF128, Ascon-CXOF128). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  9. 9NIST (ed.), The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, NIST CSWP 29 (publication page; 26 February 2024). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  10. 10UK National Cyber Security Centre (ed.), Timelines for migration to post-quantum cryptography (guidance page; version 1.0, 20 March 2025; milestones 2028, 2031 and 2035). NCSC, London. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  11. 11European Commission (ed.), Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography (library page; published 23 June 2025; the milestones were not on the page). Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, Brussels. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  12. 31UNVERIFIED, not opened: NIS Cooperation Group (ed.), Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography (national roadmaps by the end of 2026, high-risk use cases by 2030, as many systems as feasible by 2035), taken from secondary summaries in an earlier edition of this series; the milestones were not on the page read. European Commission, Brussels. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  13. 30UNVERIFIED, not opened: NSA (ed.), Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0 advisory and FAQ, cited from memory; the NSA pages returned an access error and no date is used. National Security Agency, Fort Meade. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  14. 27UNVERIFIED, not opened: European Union, Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 on horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements (Cyber Resilience Act; in force 10 December 2024; reporting duties from 11 September 2026; main obligations from 11 December 2027), dates taken from law-firm search summaries; the Official Journal page returned no text. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  15. 21US Securities and Exchange Commission (ed.), SEC adopts rules on cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance and incident disclosure by public companies (press release 2023-139; adopted 26 July 2023; Form 8-K Item 1.05 within four business days of a materiality determination). SEC, Washington. Observation year 2023. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  16. 5POST-CLOSE, context only: NIST (ed.), Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards, NIST IR 8547, final (publication page; document history 27 October 2026, after the 30 September evidence close; abstract refers to Executive Order 14412 and OMB Memorandum M-26-15; no dates on the page; PDF not opened). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  17. 6NIST (ed.), NIST selects HQC as fifth algorithm for post-quantum encryption (news item, 11 March 2025; backup to ML-KEM; draft standard expected in about a year; final standard expected in 2027). National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  18. 22Gidney, C., How to factor 2048 bit RSA integers with less than a million noisy qubits, arXiv:2505.15917, submitted 21 May 2025 (abstract page; under one million noisy qubits; under a week; 0.1% gate error; 1 microsecond cycle; 10 microsecond reaction time; the author’s 2019 estimate was about 20 million qubits in 8 hours). arXiv, Ithaca. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  19. 37UNVERIFIED, not opened: Shor, P.W., Polynomial-time algorithms for prime factorization and discrete logarithms on a quantum computer, SIAM Journal on Computing 26(5), 1484 to 1509, 1997, cited from memory. Observation year 1997. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  20. 38UNVERIFIED, not opened: Mosca, M., Cybersecurity in an era with quantum computers: will we be ready?, IEEE Security and Privacy 16(5), 38 to 41, 2018, cited from memory. Observation year 2018. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  21. 25Signal (ed.), Signal Protocol and Post-Quantum Ratchets, SPQR triple ratchet (blog post, 2 October 2025; ML-KEM 768; gradual rollout; formal verification). Signal Messenger, Mountain View. Vendor announcement, weak evidence. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  22. 26Apple (ed.), iMessage with PQ3: The new state of the art in quantum-secure messaging at scale (security blog post, 21 February 2024; Kyber-1024 and Kyber-768 hybrid with P-256; level 3 on its own scale). Apple, Cupertino. Vendor announcement, weak evidence. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  23. 24OpenSSH project (ed.), Post-quantum cryptography in OpenSSH (documentation page; sntrup761x25519-sha512 from 9.0; mlkem768x25519-sha256 added in 9.9 and default in 10.0; warning from 10.1). OpenBSD Project. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  24. 43UNVERIFIED, not opened: Rescorla, E., The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.3, RFC 8446, Internet Engineering Task Force, August 2018, cited from memory. Observation year 2018. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  25. 32UNVERIFIED, not opened: NIST (ed.), Status Report on the Fourth Round of the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process, NIST IR 8545, March 2025, cited from memory. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  26. 39UNVERIFIED, not opened: NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (ed.), Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography, NIST SP 1800-38, cited from memory. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Observation year 2023. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  27. 41UNVERIFIED, not opened: US Office of Management and Budget (ed.), Memorandum M-23-02, Migrating to Post-Quantum Cryptography, November 2022, cited from memory. OMB, Washington. Observation year 2022. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  28. 15Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center (ed.), 2024 Internet Crime Report (859,532 complaints; USD 16.6 billion losses, up 33%; 256,256 complaints with a loss; 3,156 ransomware complaints; 263,455 cyber-threat complaints and USD 1.571 billion; 4,878 critical-infrastructure complaints). FBI, Washington. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  29. 16European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ed.), ENISA Threat Landscape 2025 (publication page; period 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025; 4,875 incidents analysed; version 1.3 of 22 September 2026 corrected figures; PDF not opened). ENISA, Athens. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  30. 20ISC2 (ed.), 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study (page; published 4 December 2025; 16,029 respondents; 59% critical or significant skills needs, up from 44%; no workforce gap estimate). ISC2, Alexandria. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  31. 17Verizon (ed.), 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report (landing page; period 1 November 2024 to 31 October 2025; 48% of breaches involve ransomware; 31% begin with exploited vulnerabilities). Verizon Business, New York. Vendor report, weak evidence; the full report was not opened. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  32. 36UNVERIFIED, not opened: Microsoft (ed.), Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2025, cited from memory; the page returned an error. Microsoft, Redmond. Vendor report, weak evidence. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  33. 14CISA and 22 partner agencies (eds.), Countering Chinese State-Sponsored Actors Compromise of Networks Worldwide to Feed Global Espionage System, advisory AA25-239A (published 27 August 2025; revised 3 September 2025; 23 agencies from 13 countries; known vulnerabilities; no zero-day exploitation observed). Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Arlington. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  34. 23Cloudflare (ed.), The state of the post-quantum Internet in 2025 (blog analysis; late October 2025 majority of human traffic with post-quantum key agreement; 3.7% of origins; 39% of top 100,000 domains in September 2025; ML-DSA-44 about 15 kB; first post-quantum certificates expected in 2026). Cloudflare, San Francisco. Vendor analysis of its own network, weak evidence. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
  35. 12CISA (ed.), Post-Quantum Cryptography Initiative (page; key dates, federal inventory duty under 6 U.S.C. 1526, product categories list, references to Executive Orders 14306, 14412 and 14413 and OMB Memorandum M-26-15). Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Arlington. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back

Cite this chapter

Valadbaygi, S. (Ed.). (2026). Chapter 6: Readings from the other desks. In Exponential Technology Report 2026: Cybersecurity and Advanced Cryptography (Baseline Edition 2026, Report No. NR-XTECH-CRYPTO-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE) [Draft under review]. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI).

Every citation form of the whole report, BibTeX and RIS included, is on the edition home. Cite this report

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