Quantum risk in food and agriculture

It applies, and not by name. Annex II of NIS2 lists the production, processing and distribution of food as an other critical sector, covering food businesses engaged in wholesale distribution and industrial production and processing. Most large and medium-sized manufacturers and distributors are therefore important entities under their national transposition. Article 21 requires policies on the use of cryptography and, where appropriate, encryption, alongside supply chain security. A competent authority or a retailer's auditor can reasonably ask how that policy treats algorithms NIST will deprecate in 2030. Farms themselves are generally outside NIS2; the co-operatives, processors and distributors they sell to are not.

Who may see the data a connected machine produces. Since 12 September 2025 the user of a connected product, the farmer in most cases, has the right to access the data it generates and to share it with third parties such as a repair business or an adviser. Connected products placed on the market after 12 September 2026 must give that access by design. The 2018 code of conduct from Copa-Cogeca, CEMA and partners already put the farmer at the heart of agricultural data; the Data Act makes it enforceable. For a machinery maker that means more data leaving your cloud over authenticated links, for more years, and every one of those links keys with RSA or ECDSA today.

No. The Food Traceability Rule requires key data elements for critical tracking events on foods on the Food Traceability List, available to the FDA within 24 hours of a request and as a sortable spreadsheet during an outbreak. The FDA says it will not enforce the rule before 20 July 2028, following a Congressional directive. What the rule does create is a record a regulator and your customers will rely on for years, exchanged between growers, packers, distributors and retailers over links and platforms that authenticate with quantum-vulnerable algorithms. Integrity is the question, not secrecy: if the signature on a lot record can be forged in 2032, the record proves nothing.

Because the two share an entry point and a time horizon. The FBI's 2021 and 2022 notifications describe attackers reaching food businesses through managed service providers, unpatched systems and shared network resources, and the Food and Ag-ISAC counted 265 ransomware attacks on the sector in 2025. The same access that deploys ransomware can record traffic quietly, and recorded traffic protected by RSA or ECDSA becomes readable once a cryptographically relevant quantum computer exists. A recipe or a supplier contract recorded in 2026 is still valuable in 2036. The inventory and segmentation work that reduces ransomware risk is the first step of the migration, so you do both at once.

Some can. Benchmarks from the pqm4 project put ML-KEM-768 key generation at roughly 100,000 clock cycles and about 1.5KB of stack on an ARM Cortex-M4, within reach of recent controllers and gateways and out of reach of older ones. Bandwidth bites harder than compute on a farm or in a cold store: an ML-KEM-768 exchange adds about 2,272 bytes, which matters on a low-rate radio or cellular link polled by hundreds of loggers. Classify each device family as algorithm-agile, firmware-updatable or algorithm-fixed, terminate post-quantum tunnels at a gateway for the fixed ones, and write agility into the next purchase.

Any protocol or tunnel that uses RSA or ECDSA for key exchange, certificates or authentication: OPC UA security modes between line controllers and historians, every IPsec or TLS VPN carrying vendor remote access or telematics, the TLS behind cold chain and traceability platforms, the AS2 certificates on your EDI, and the cloud links from a tractor's telematics gateway. Modbus/TCP, PROFINET and ISOBUS carry no cryptography of their own, which is a different problem, and the protection sits in the tunnels around them. The symmetric parts, AES and HMAC, hold up. Our free OT Protocol Quantum Vulnerability Scanner maps this for the protocols you select.

With the links you do not control. A co-operative's exposure sits in the grain, feed and input platforms it shares with members, the EDI it runs with buyers and the telematics its members' machines report to, and the FBI's April 2022 notification shows co-operatives are attacked precisely because of their time-sensitive role at planting and harvest. Ask each platform provider and machinery maker for a post-quantum roadmap, list the certificates and VPNs you own, and put the rest in the contract. The free tools on this page cover the first two steps without a consultant.

With four pieces of evidence: a cryptographic inventory of plant OT, cold chain and traceability platforms, connected machinery and the enterprise systems behind them; a map of which recipes, contracts and records must stay confidential or provably intact beyond 2030 against the algorithms protecting them; device families classified by whether they can change algorithm; and roadmaps requested from every machinery maker, platform provider, logistics partner and EDI counterparty. Those four give the board the evidence to set priorities.

Everything on this page. The two-minute readiness check scores your sites and supply chain against what NIS2 auditors, retailer audits, the FDA and your board can ask, and routes you to the right next step. The free tools, including the Third-Party Cryptographic Exposure Model and the OT Protocol Quantum Vulnerability Scanner, run in your browser with no registration. The weekly peer call runs every Tuesday at 15:00 CET and is open to anyone. Sample lectures from the 170-plus expert library are linked above, and the page is reviewed as the mandates change; the date beside the key facts is the last check.

It depends on the role. Boards, executives and co-operative councils start with the Certified Quantum Business Professional bootcamp, about 22 hours self-paced across ten modules. Security, quality and IT teams take Introduction to Quantum Cyber Security, four to five hours online with a QSECDEF certificate. OT and plant engineers take PQC Migration for Industrial Control Systems, the half-day sector course on controllers, protocols and Purdue-model sequencing. Whoever will run the migration takes CPQCPM, the Certified Post Quantum Cryptography Programme Manager course: ten hours live online over five weeks, with the next public cohort in January 2027.

Yes. QSECDEF runs private CPQCPM cohorts for a single organisation, live online or in person, and private deliveries of the sector courses listed under Equip your people for your plant, cold chain and supply chain teams, including the Quantum-Safe Supply Chain Security for Manufacturers workshop. Board and leadership workshops are built on your own exposure and obligations and end with an agreed position on quantum risk. Use the contact button in the For your organisation section and tell us your timeline.

Through the QSECDEF Expert Members directory. Every listed member has been vetted, has signed the Members' Charter and has presented to the community. You can filter by consulting and services, technology vendor or enablement and investment, and send a request for further information from the member's own page. QSECDEF is vendor-neutral and sells training, not migration products, so the shortlist stays yours.

Two routes. QSECDEF membership gives your team the self-paced courses, the full lecture archive, the weekly call and 25 per cent off CPQCPM and partner training. Expert Membership is for the builders, consultancies and technology vendors serving food and agriculture who want to be found by the people reading this page; it includes a showcase listing with an enquiry form, the Industry Conversations and speaking slots at the annual QSECDEF symposium.

No. QSECDEF is a vendor-neutral membership network. We train people and connect them with peers and peer-reviewed experts; we do not sell migration software or services.

CPQCPM is ten hours of live instruction over five weeks, two hours a week. The Quantum Cyber Security course is 4 to 5 hours, self-paced. The business bootcamp is self-paced at your own speed. The industrial control systems and supply chain courses are listed with their formats on the training pages.