Cryptographic inventory
Systems, protocols and certificates using vulnerable public-key algorithms are discovered and recorded, as the first step of migration.
GCRI · Quantum Technologies
Cryptography and quantum
Cybersecurity and cryptography meet quantum technology in two ways: quantum computers threaten current public-key cryptography, and quantum key distribution offers a different way to share keys. In this field the work is planning the move to post-quantum cryptography and weighing QKD honestly.
01Contents
Cryptography and quantum in five parts.
02Application
What cybersecurity and cryptography does here.
Cybersecurity and cryptography protect information systems and data from unauthorised access, disruption and manipulation. They address threats that can spread rapidly across interconnected digital and physical systems. In quantum and cyber and digital resilience, cybersecurity analysis identifies how a single compromise can propagate across sectors that share software, vendors or networks. It informs resilience requirements and cyber insurance. The canonical description is on the STEM Commons.
Migration prioritisation
Systems are prioritised by how long their data must stay secret and how long migration will take, compared with threat timeline ranges.
QKD implementation review
QKD deployments are reviewed for trusted node exposure, device evaluation and fit with agency guidance.
03Monitor
Security assessment.
The screen a team would use to follow this method: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Security assessment
Quantum technologies · Cryptography and quantum · Run R-0897
Two high findingsGCRI · Quantum Technologies
Findings
| Weak key rotation | Identity service | High | PR.AA | Open |
| Unpatched gateway | Edge | High | PR.PS | Fixing |
| Logging gap | Payments API | Medium | DE.CM | Open |
| Stale accounts | Directory | Low | PR.AA | Closed |
Method card
- Method
- Cybersecurity and cryptography
- Framework
- CSF 2.0 functions
- Scope
- 60 assets
- Label
- MODELLED
Control coverage by function
04Data
What the method consumes.
Datasets and records used by cybersecurity and cryptography on this platform, with the role each plays and the label its values carry. Sources are listed in the source register.
| Data | Role | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Cryptographic discovery outputs | Inventory | OBSERVED |
| Data classification | Lifetime of secrecy | DECLARED |
| Agency guidance | Positions | Published statistics |
05Simulator
A cascade through interdependent networks.
A hazard footprint takes out co-located assets in every layer; fragmentation, dependency between layers and overload of the survivors then spread the failure. The 3D view separates the layers by depth. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction.
Controls
- Assets per layer
- 18
- Hazard footprint
- 8% of area
- Assets that depend on another layer
- 60%
- Spare capacity (tolerance)
- 30%
Readouts
- Assets hit by the hazard
- 13%
- Assets still working
- 44%
- Amplification of the initial damage
- 4.3 times
- Steps to settle
- 2
Numbers, methods and sources
| Step | Data centres working (%) | Networks working (%) | Power working (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 83 | 89 | 89 |
| 1 | 61 | 72 | 67 |
| 2 | 61 | 33 | 39 |
Methods
- Interdependent networks Buldyrev and others (2010), Catastrophic cascade of failures in interdependent networks, Nature 464
- Overload cascades Motter and Lai (2002), Physical Review E 66
- Betweenness load Brandes (2001), Journal of Mathematical Sociology 25
- Multilayer networks Kivela and others (2014), Journal of Complex Networks 2
- Infrastructure interdependencies Rinaldi, Peerenboom and Kelly (2001), IEEE Control Systems 21(6)
- Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
- One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley
Data
The model runs on the teaching values set by the controls. To calibrate it for a place, read it against these admitted layers and series, which this page’s map can draw:
- Major roads Natural Earth
- Railways Natural Earth
- Seaports Natural Earth
- Airports Natural Earth
- Urban extents Natural Earth
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band) NASA/NOAA VIIRS (Suomi NPP) · register nasa.gibs.context-live-layers
- Natural events (NASA EONET) NASA EONET · register nasa.eonet.events
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Quantum Technologies in Foundry
- Tested at Quantum Technologies in Universe
- Codified in Digital, Cyber and AI in Standards
- Published in Quantum Technologies in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Technology and Digital Systems in Academy
06Validation
How results are checked.
Controls are tested through red-team exercises, audits and formal analysis of cryptographic schemes. Incident data are used to check whether defences performed as intended.
| Check | How it is done |
|---|---|
| Inventory completeness | Discovery is checked against architecture documentation |
| Interoperability testing | Post-quantum implementations are tested with partners |
| Agency alignment | Plans are compared with national agency timelines |
Adversaries adapt, so historical data may not reflect future attacks. Software supply chains and legacy systems introduce weaknesses that are hard to inventory.
07Methods and evidence
How cryptography and quantum is modelled, measured and tested.
The model, its assumptions, its data and its uncertainty, in the form a scientist or engineer would check. Structures follow published methods. The values drawn are illustrative, not findings.
System model
The couplings between the systems in cryptography and quantum: signs of influence, a reinforcing and a balancing loop, and cross-links where stress jumps.
FAIR guiding principles · GO FAIR and FORCE11W3C PROV · World Wide Web ConsortiumGuidance on consistent treatment of uncertainties · IPCCCEOS Analysis Ready Data · Committee on Earth Observation Satellites
08Connections
Topics that rely on this method.
09Stewardship
Who maintains the method.
Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience stewards cybersecurity and cryptography for the Consortium and reviews how it is applied across platforms.
10Connected
Where this page leads across the Consortium.
11Questions
Questions and answers.
What are the limits of cybersecurity and cryptography in this field?
Adversaries adapt, so historical data may not reflect future attacks. Software supply chains and legacy systems introduce weaknesses that are hard to inventory.
How are results checked?
Controls are tested through red-team exercises, audits and formal analysis of cryptographic schemes. Incident data are used to check whether defences performed as intended.
Are the values on this page real?
The data names, roles and checks are real descriptions of practice. The canvas shows a design of the method’s use, not a run; no result is reported here.
Where else is this method applied?
The canonical method page lists every platform that applies it.
ReportsContribute
Contribute evidence from this page.
Reports is the Consortium’s quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
GCRIQuantum TechnologiesExponential TechnologyForesight Outlook
- EmailGateway GW-GCRISend it from this pageEvidence, a correction, a case, a method, a review, a translation or profile input. It arrives tagged with this page, so the editor who owns it receives it.
- ZenodoOpen depositDeposit it and submit to the communityPublish your own record on Zenodo with your ORCID iD, then submit it to the Reports community there. Curators review it; the DOI stays yours.
- ReportsGCRISee every way to contributeThe contribution types, how each is reviewed, what credit you receive, the licence and what is never accepted.
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Quantum Technologies
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