Procurement rules start treating quantum readiness as a requirement
Draft guidance would require cryptographic inventories from vendors bidding on public contracts.
By Ruth Okonjo
Written in-house by the Policy desk desk — an explainer, not a report of a news event.
- Vendors would submit a cryptographic bill of materials.
- Migration deadlines are staged by data sensitivity class.
- Small suppliers warn about compliance cost.
The most consequential quantum policy of the year is not about building computers — it is about retiring the cryptography they will eventually break.
Draft procurement guidance would require suppliers to submit a cryptographic bill of materials with each bid, listing every algorithm in use and a migration date for it. Deadlines are staged by data sensitivity rather than applied uniformly.
Smaller suppliers argue the reporting burden falls hardest on them. Security teams counter that organisations unable to inventory their own cryptography were never going to migrate on time.
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