{"id":20515,"date":"2023-09-27T17:46:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T16:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/?p=20052"},"modified":"2025-11-13T12:14:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T12:14:03","slug":"readying-the-mobile-industry-for-a-post-quantum-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/article\/readying-the-mobile-industry-for-a-post-quantum-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Readying the mobile industry for a post-quantum future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yolanda Sanz, Technical Director, GSMA<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s MWC Las Vegas conference, the GSMA established the Post Quantum Telco Network task force, initiated by IBM and Vodafone, with the goal of uniting the ecosystem to prepare telcos for the quantum era.<\/p>\n

The task force has gained significant momentum and now includes more than 50 companies and over 20 major operators. Now, at the MWC Las Vegas 2023 conference, the task force has released its \u201cGuidelines for Quantum Risk Management for Telco\u201d<\/em> whitepaper.\u00a0 This paper is intended to support telcos in their risk assessment process and provides an analysis of how some commonly used risk assessment frameworks may be adapted specifically for the telecommunications industry, using relevant use cases as examples.<\/p>\n

The telecommunications industry is vital to how the world connects, from how we work and play, to emergency response and critical national infrastructure. Companies work continuously to ensure these networks are secure and new challenges need to be addressed in a timely way. Quantum computers will be able to solve mathematical challenges beyond the reach of classical techniques, and a thriving research community is exploring how their capabilities may be applied for positive benefit across multiple industry sectors \u2013 and society at large.<\/p>\n

While precise timelines are uncertain, it is also accepted that quantum computers powerful enough to break the most common encryption standards used today will become available in the future. That means the encryption we currently use to protect telco systems, particularly public-key encryption, will be vulnerable once these cryptographically relevant quantum computers reach sufficient maturity.<\/p>\n

Even before such systems arrive, threats already exist today. With a \u00a0\u201charvest now, decrypt later\u201d attack \u2013 where bad actors harvest and store encrypted data for later decryption \u2014 any encrypted data stolen today could become vulnerable should a bad actor gain access to a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer in the future. The telco industry needs to adopt new cryptography algorithms and cybersecurity practices that provide resistance to future attack by quantum computers.<\/p>\n

Breaking down the guidelines<\/strong><\/p>\n

In its new guidelines, the GSMA task force recommends several steps for telcos to manage and remediate risks in the quantum era. Some of its recommendations include:<\/p>\n