There is a cyber attack happening right now that most businesses cannot see. It is called Harvest Now, Decrypt Later. Attackers are intercepting and storing encrypted traffic today, fully aware they cannot read it yet, and planning to decrypt it the moment quantum computers are capable. A confidential call, contract, or message you send today could be exposed years from now. The breach may have already happened. You just cannot see it yet.
The Timeline Just Collapsed
For years, the quantum threat felt comfortably distant, a problem for the 2040s. That assumption no longer holds. Expert estimates for "Q-Day", the point at which a quantum computer can break today's encryption, have moved sharply from the mid-2030s to roughly 2029 to 2033. Google has set itself an internal post-quantum migration target of 2029, ahead of US government deadlines later in the decade. Research published through March 2026 has been the catalyst, cutting the resources needed far below earlier estimates.
Recent work suggests breaking elliptic-curve cryptography may need around twenty times fewer qubits than previously thought. The machines capable of this do not exist yet, but the direction of travel is clear, and the planning horizon for any serious organisation is now well inside the danger zone.
Your Conversations Are the Target
This is not an abstract problem for cryptographers. The tools your business relies on every day, VoIP, video conferencing and unified communications, are secured by the exact public-key algorithms quantum computers are designed to break. RSA, ECC and Diffie-Hellman are all undone by Shor's algorithm, and the VPNs and signed certificates around them rely on the same maths. That raises a second danger: if those signatures can be forged, attackers can impersonate trusted identities and push tampered software updates, a risk often called Trust Now, Forge Later.
In practice, several everyday systems sit squarely in the firing line:
Voice and Video Calls
VoIP, video conferencing, and unified communications encrypt sessions with the very algorithms quantum breaks.
Email and Messaging
Encrypted email and messaging depend on public-key exchange, leaving stored conversations exposed to later decryption.
Remote Access and VPNs
The encrypted tunnels protecting remote workers and site links rely on key exchange that quantum can unravel.
Digital Signatures
Certificates that prove identity could be forged, opening the door to impersonation, malware, and targeted phishing.
Symmetric encryption such as AES holds up far better, weakened only enough to be offset by longer keys. Better still, the replacement standards already exist, and the platforms you rely on are adopting them.
How Cisco Webex Is Becoming Quantum-Safe
If your calls and meetings run on Cisco Webex, this work is already under way. Cisco has published a Quantum-Safe Communications Roadmap and committed to delivering quantum-safe communications across most of its core portfolio by December 2026. The direction is set and the milestones are public.
A Public Roadmap
Cisco's Quantum-Safe Communications Roadmap commits to quantum-safe communications across most of its core portfolio by December 2026.
Encrypted Meetings Today
Webex meetings already use end-to-end encryption built on MLS (Messaging Layer Security) and SFrame.
Full-Stack Architecture
At Cisco Live 2026, Cisco introduced a post-quantum architecture applying NIST-approved algorithms across its products.
From Boot to Data in Transit
That protection reaches from the moment a device boots all the way to data moving across the network.
This is encryption being rebuilt from the foundations up rather than bolted on, so the protection follows your conversations wherever they travel.
How Microsoft Calling and Dynamics 365 Are Becoming Quantum-Safe
If you run Microsoft Teams calling or Dynamics 365, your protection comes from the cloud they sit on. Both run on Microsoft 365 and Azure, underpinned by SymCrypt, Microsoft's core cryptographic library. Through its Quantum Safe Program, Microsoft is migrating in phases, aligning to early adoption from 2029 and full post-quantum adoption by 2033.
SymCrypt at the Core
The cryptographic library underpinning Microsoft 365 and Azure, the foundation every upgrade is built upon.
A Phased Quantum Safe Program
Microsoft is migrating in stages, aligning to early adoption from 2029 and full post-quantum adoption by 2033.
NIST Algorithms in Windows
The November 2025 update brought the NIST standards ML-KEM and ML-DSA into Windows 11 and Windows Server.
Protection Through the Cloud
Teams calling and Dynamics 365 inherit these upgrades from the shared platform beneath them, not from separate fixes.
Because the work happens in the platform itself, your calling and customer engagement tools grow more resilient without you rebuilding a thing.
What Virtual First Can Help You Implement
You do not have to navigate any of this alone. Whether you run on Cisco Webex or Microsoft, Virtual First turns these vendor roadmaps into a clear plan for your business, across four practical steps:
Assess Your Exposure
We build a cryptographic inventory across your calling, video, unified communications, VPNs and certificates, so you know exactly where RSA and ECC are in use.
Prioritise by Data Longevity
We focus first on the information that must stay confidential for years, since long-life data is the most exposed to Harvest Now, Decrypt Later.
Deploy the Right Platform
We roll out or optimise Cisco Webex calling, or Microsoft Teams calling and Dynamics 365, mapped to each vendor's quantum-safe roadmap.
Stay Ahead as Standards Evolve
We build crypto-agility and hybrid encryption in now, and keep you aligned to Cisco and Microsoft milestones, so future changes stay routine.
Treated as a planned migration rather than a last-minute scramble, this is a chance to make your communications more resilient than they have ever been. Start now, on the platforms you already trust, and you will be the ones still keeping your conversations private when Q-Day finally arrives.
Ready to future-proof your communications?
Whether you run on Cisco Webex or Microsoft, Virtual First can help you assess your exposure, plan a post-quantum migration, and deploy quantum-safe calling and collaboration.
Get in Touch