Summary
Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora warned on the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call that hostile nation-states could have cryptanalytically relevant quantum computers by 2029, perhaps sooner. He said such capability could break today’s public key cryptography, at which point most security appliances would need replacing.
Arora acknowledged there is some quantum FUD, but he put the prediction on the record and said the company is baking quantum threat readiness into its strategy. Palo Alto plans a full range of quantum-safe offerings as customers start requesting PQC. CTO Lee Klarich reported a significant inflection in the last 6 to 9 months in customers discussing PQC and planning with urgency.
For CISOs and security leaders, the signal is a tightening timeline to inventory cryptography, enable crypto agility, and plan PQC migration to reduce harvest-now, decrypt-later exposure. A top-tier vendor expects accelerated PQC demand and is aligning product roadmaps accordingly.
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See the original article at: https://postquantum.com/industry-news/palo-alto-quantum-pqc/