Accenture Invests in QuSecure to Protect Against Future Quantum Threats with Crypto Agility

New York, NY (Mar. 26, 2024) – Accenture is pleased to announce it has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in QuSecure™ a leader in post-quantum cybersecurity. Together, Accenture and QuSecure offer comprehensive post-quantum crypto agility solutions to help government agencies and private sector businesses mitigate emerging quantum risks.

Headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., QuSecure is a privately held company founded in 2019. QuSecure’s QuProtect software offers an end-to-end quantum security-as-a-service architecture that combines zero-trust, next-generation quantum-resilient technology and crypto agility to protect networks, cloud systems, edge devices and satellite communications against today’s cyberattacks and future quantum threats, all with minimal disruption to existing systems.

“Organizations need a reliable, quantum-resilient cybersecurity solution that not only adheres to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) post-quantum encryption standards but that can be easily integrated across all parts of a communications network,” said Tom Patterson, emerging technology security lead at Accenture. “We’re investing in trusted providers like QuSecure to help our clients future-proof their global networks today to protect high-risk data faster.”

Post-quantum encryption standards protect a variety of electronic information, such as private email messages and e-commerce transactions. NIST is advising computer system administrators to start transitioning to NIST’s newly released standards as quickly as possible. According to the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), the shift to crypto agility must start immediately and is a long-term strategy rather than a one-time implementation.

“In a progressively digital world, as AI and quantum threats to encryption evolve at an ever-faster pace, it is critical that we evolve from encryption management that requires several years to upgrade algorithms to orchestrated crypto agility—the ability to push a button and upgrade your entire system at once,” said Rebecca Krauthamer, co-founder and CEO of QuSecure. “The ability to orchestrate cryptography at the enterprise scale—swapping out cryptographic algorithms at any endpoint, anywhere—is critical to a robust cybersecurity strategy. QuSecure and Accenture have a shared vision to provide organizations with a long-term solution to upgrade and manage their encryption standards.”

In 2023, Accenture and QuSecure collaborated to establish the first successful multi-orbit data communications test secured with post-quantum cryptography (PQC), which refers to cryptographic methods that are secure against an attack by a quantum computer. This demonstrates that crypto agility, successfully rotating to a less vulnerable algorithm, is real and possible.

Recently, Banco Sabadell successfully completed a joint project with Accenture and QuSecure to explore the adoption of PQC technologies in the bank’s infrastructure. This project represents a significant step toward strengthening defenses against quantum attacks with Banco Sabadell employing QuSecure’s software for crypto agility to update encryption.

“Crypto agility is critical for the banking industry, allowing for the seamless integration of new cryptographic standards without the need to rebuild entire systems,” said Joan Puig, Group CISO of Banco Sabadell. “Our project, in collaboration with Accenture and QuSecure, enabled us to explore the impact of adopting post-quantum cryptography technologies on the bank’s infrastructure. By embracing crypto agility and testing quantum technologies we’re ensuring our preparedness for the quantum future.”

To help maintain security in a post-quantum world, Accenture developed an eight-step roadmap to help clients secure their data and communications and is collaborating with companies like QuSecure. Working with other industry leaders, Accenture has designed a Quantum Security Maturity Index to give corporate boards and executives a way to measure their quantum security infrastructure against their peers and identify areas for improvement.

QuSecure will also join Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment program focused on working with companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies. Project Spotlight offers extensive access to Accenture’s domain expertise and its enterprise clients, helping startups harness creativity and deliver on the promise of their technology. Additional cybersecurity, quantum security and space companies that have joined Project Spotlight include Reality Defender, Aliro Quantum and Tenchi Security.

For information on how Accenture is helping clients prepare today for post-quantum security visit us here: Quantum Security Services & Solutions | Accenture.

Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 750,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Learn more at www.accenture.com.

Accenture Security is a leading provider of end-to-end cybersecurity services, including strategy, protection, resilience and industry-specific cyber services. We bring security innovation, coupled with global scale and a worldwide delivery capability through our network of Cyber Fusion Centers. Helped by our team of 25,000+ highly skilled professionals, we enable clients to innovate safely, build cyber resilience and grow with confidence. Visit us at accenture.com/security.

About QuSecure

QuSecure is a leader in post-quantum cybersecurity with a mission to use the advent of quantum computing to act as a catalyst to fix the foundation of data security infrastructure. The company’s QuProtect software platform solution, available now, offers a comprehensive, end-to-end quantum-security-as-a-service architecture that delivers zero-trust, next-generation quantum-resilient technology, and crypto agility to protect networks, cloud systems, edge devices, end user, and satellite communications against today’s cyberattacks and future quantum threats, all with no rip and replace or disruption to existing systems. QuSecure is a proud Accenture Project Spotlight Company, and SBIR Phase III recipient. Book a Free PQC Ideation Workshop with us to get started on your PQC Migration and to take our QuProtect Software for a test drive. For more information, visit www.qusecure.com.

SOURCE: Accenture

Tags: Accenture, cyber risk, cyber security, quantum computing, Strategic Investment