For water company CISOs, OT and SCADA engineers, operations directors, municipal water departments and their boards or councils
The outstation you commission this year will still be reporting when the threat arrives.
In fifteen minutes you will know which of your telemetry links, treatment controls and records are already exposed, what NIS2, the Drinking Water Directive, the UK NIS Regulations and America's Water Infrastructure Act let a regulator ask for, and the first 90 days of a plan that fits a utility's change control and budget cycle.
Step 1 of 5
A dosing PLC installed at a treatment works in 2026 will still be controlling chlorine in 2046. The VPN tunnel that carries its telemetry authenticates with RSA or ECDSA, the algorithms a cryptographically relevant quantum computer breaks. Nobody needs that computer today. They record your telemetry sessions, vendor remote access and historian replication now and read them when it arrives. In December 2023 the CyberAv3ngers campaign reached at least 34 US water and wastewater facilities through PLCs with default passwords, which tells you how little effort the collection side takes. In water, the assets, the drawings and the data all outlive the algorithm protecting them.
| Asset or record type | Typical lifetime or retention | Confidential until, if created in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Treatment process set points, dosing logic and chemical dosing records | Life of the treatment works, 25 to 40 years | 2051 to 2066 |
| Network and site drawings, hydraulic models and GIS of mains and sewers | Life of the asset; mains and sewers run 50 to 100 years | 2076+ |
| Remote telemetry configurations, outstation addressing, radio and cellular credentials | Life of the outstation fleet, 15 to 25 years | 2041 to 2051 |
| SCADA historian data, alarm logs and flow and pressure trends | Often 10 years or more | 2036+ |
| Customer billing and personal data, including vulnerable customer registers | Life of the account plus statutory retention | 2032, and for as long as the person is identifiable |
| Water quality compliance records and sampling results | Regulatory retention; integrity matters more than secrecy | Life of the record |
Lifetimes are typical of UK and EU utility asset management plans and are not statutory. Check them against your own asset register and retention schedule. For the method, see long-lived data and quantum risk: what to protect first.
PLCs, RTUs and dosing controllers talk Modbus/TCP, which carries no cryptography, or DNP3 and OPC UA, which authenticate with RSA or ECDSA. The engineering workstation and the vendor's remote access tunnel are the usual way in, and they are what gets recorded.
You will know which controllers are algorithm-fixed, which can take new firmware and which remote access paths to move to hybrid key exchange first.
Thousands of outstations report over licensed radio, cellular and IPsec or TLS tunnels. Every tunnel keys with RSA or ECDSA certificates. A 9,600 baud radio link cannot carry a 1,184-byte ML-KEM public key without consequences for polling intervals.
You will know which telemetry links to protect at the head-end now, and which outstations wait for the replacement cycle.
Billing, the customer portal, smart meter head-ends and GIS run on standard IT. GIS holds the drawings that stay sensitive for the life of the pipe, and billing holds personal data for every household you serve.
You will know which corporate systems carry harvest now, decrypt later risk and can migrate first, because they run on hardware that already supports hybrid TLS.
Free readiness check
Eight questions mapped to what a NIS2 competent authority, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the EPA under America's Water Infrastructure Act and your board or council can ask about cryptography in your telemetry and treatment controls. You get a score, your top three priorities and the next step that closes your biggest gap. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Start the checkStep 2 of 5
CISA, NSA and NIST tell critical infrastructure operators to inventory cryptography and engage vendors now. In December, IRGC-affiliated actors reach at least 34 US water and wastewater facilities through internet-exposed PLCs.
NIST publishes FIPS 203, 204 and 205. The EPA's May enforcement alert finds over 70 per cent of inspected systems in breach of basic SDWA section 1433 duties. NIS2 transposition is due on 17 October.
The last AWIA risk and resilience assessments of the second cycle are due on 30 June for systems serving 3,301 to 49,999 people, with emergency response plans by 31 December. EU Member States should have national PQC roadmaps and first steps in place by year end.
The NCSC expects you to know your cryptography, OT included, and have a plan. The Drinking Water Directive's catchment risk assessments were due in July 2027; supply system assessments follow by January 2029.
EU target for high-risk use cases, critical infrastructure included. NIST deprecates 112-bit RSA and ECC. The third AWIA assessment cycle opens with the largest systems on 31 March.
NIST disallows them. EU and NCSC timelines end here. An outstation bought in 2026 is nine years into a twenty-year life.
You show: A board or council paper on quantum exposure in telemetry and treatment controls, a named sponsor and a training record.
You show: A policy that names the quantum threat, the NIST standards and the OT protocols and tunnels in scope.
You show: Post-quantum roadmaps and firmware signing plans on file from RTU, PLC, telemetry and SCADA vendors.
You show: Quantum-vulnerable algorithms listed as a risk to automated systems in the certified risk and resilience assessment, or in the Cyber Assessment Framework return, with a dated plan to retire them.
UK water companies. The NIS Regulations 2018 apply to drinking water suppliers serving 200,000 or more people, with the Drinking Water Inspectorate performing the competent authority's operational duties for England and Wales and the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland. Companies in scope file an NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework return each year, and DEFRA's Water Sector Cyber Security Strategy of March 2017 set the sector's direction. The NCSC timeline sets the pace: discovery by 2028, highest-priority migration by 2031, completion by 2035. Read the UK CNI analysis.
AWIA does not mention post-quantum cryptography. It does require the risk and resilience assessment to cover the security of electronic, computer and other automated systems, and the EPA's 2024 enforcement alert shows inspectors now read that section. The third assessment cycle opens on 31 March 2030 for the largest systems, the year NIST deprecates RSA and ECC. Put quantum-vulnerable cryptography in the assessment you certify next, and use CISA's free water sector services for the exposure scan.
NIS2 Annex I sector 7 and the recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive put wastewater on the same footing as drinking water in the EU, and the EPA and CISA treat water and wastewater as one sector. The Unitronics incidents of 2023 hit wastewater plants as often as drinking water works. Pumping station telemetry, sewer level monitoring and vendor remote access to treatment PLCs are the first exposure to map.
NIS2 applies to medium and large entities by default, and lets a Member State bring in a smaller operator that is the sole provider of an essential service in its area. AWIA applies above 3,300 people. Below those lines the obligations are lighter, but the vendors, telemetry products and remote access tools are the same. Share the procurement language with neighbouring utilities and ask your SCADA integrator for the PQC roadmap on your behalf.
Step 3 of 5
Sequencing from our OT and SCADA practitioner framework. For budget ranges, see the PQC migration cost benchmarks. Prefer a facilitated session? Our power and energy workshops cover water and wastewater utilities; the protocols and the regulators' questions are the same.
Need help delivering the plan? Our expert members are peer-reviewed suppliers, integrators and advisers. Meet the expert members →
Step 4 of 5
A utility migration succeeds or stalls on people: the programme lead who owns the inventory, the engineers who know the telemetry and the treatment controls, and the board or council that approves the replacement budget. Match each role to the outcome you need from them.
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QSECDEF training · CPQCPM
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Certified Quantum Business Professional
Self-paced, no physics background. Covers PQC, policy and PQC risk and migration management.
Free first session · included in membership
Get Session 1 freePQC Migration for SCADA and OT Networks
Full day, 6 hours, in person or online. Protocol-specific migration for DNP3, IEC 61850, Modbus/TCP and OPC UA, constrained device strategy for RTUs and PLCs, and FIPS 203/204/205 selection, with a cryptographic inventory walkthrough for a representative SCADA architecture.
Private delivery · certificate on completion
See the courseIntroduction to Quantum Cyber Security
Six modules, 4 to 5 hours, certificated.
Free first module · included in membership
Get Module 1 free Team membership brings your board, programme lead, OT engineers and security teams up to speed together, tracks what each person has completed and certifies across the group. The self-paced courses above are included, plus 170+ expert lectures and the weekly call, and members pay less for CPQCPM.
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A members-only structured Q&A for water company CISOs, OT and SCADA engineers, operations directors, municipal water departments and their telemetry and equipment vendors. It runs under the Chatham House Rule and is facilitated by Anna Beata Kalisz Hedegaard, Founder of QSECDEF.
Practitioner lectures from the QSECDEF library that matter most to utilities: securing operational networks, cryptographic agility at scale, running a cryptographic inventory, and keeping constrained devices and their entropy honest.
Expert Membership
Expert membership brings you into an open community working across sectors, opening up industry conversations, knowledge and access to experts. If you are building technology or consulting capabilities in this sector relevant to Quantum or Advanced AI, we want to hear from you.
Not by name. NIS2 lists drinking water and waste water in Annex I as sectors of high criticality, and Article 21(2)(h) requires policies and procedures on the use of cryptography and, where appropriate, encryption. That obligation covers the network and information systems behind the essential service, so telemetry, treatment controls and remote access are in scope. A competent authority can reasonably ask how your cryptography policy treats algorithms that NIST will deprecate in 2030.
No. Section 2013 requires community water systems serving more than 3,300 people to certify a risk and resilience assessment every five years, and the assessment must cover electronic, computer or other automated systems, including their security, with an emergency response plan that addresses cybersecurity six months later. The EPA's May 2024 enforcement alert shows inspectors now read those sections closely. Quantum-vulnerable cryptography in your SCADA and telemetry is a risk to automated systems, and the next cycle, opening on 31 March 2030 for the largest systems, is the natural place to record it.
Any protocol or tunnel that uses RSA or ECDSA for key exchange, certificates or authentication: DNP3 Secure Authentication version 5 update keys, OPC UA security modes on historians and engineering workstations, and every IPsec or TLS VPN that carries telemetry over cellular or the internet. Modbus/TCP, the most common protocol in treatment works, carries no cryptography at all, which is a different problem. The symmetric parts, such as AES and HMAC, hold up. Our free OT Protocol Quantum Vulnerability Scanner maps this for the protocols you select.
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 out of reach of older ones. The bigger constraint on a water network is bandwidth: an ML-KEM-768 exchange adds about 2,272 bytes, roughly two seconds on a 9,600 baud radio link, which matters when you poll hundreds of outstations. Classify each device as algorithm-agile, firmware-updatable or algorithm-fixed and terminate post-quantum tunnels at a gateway for the rest.
Under the NIS Regulations 2018 the Secretary of State is the competent authority for drinking water in England and the Welsh Government in Wales, with the Drinking Water Inspectorate performing the operational duties for both. The Drinking Water Quality Regulator does the same in Scotland. The threshold is supply to 200,000 or more people. Companies in scope file an NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework return each year and report NIS incidents within 72 hours. The NCSC timeline, discovery by 2028, highest-priority migration by 2031 and completion by 2035, is the pace your CAF return will be read against.
Directive (EU) 2020/2184 has applied since 12 January 2023 and replaces reactive testing with a risk-based approach to water safety: risk assessment and management of catchment areas by July 2027, and of supply systems and domestic distribution by January 2029. The directive is about water quality rather than cyber security, but the supply system risk assessment is where many utilities will first document their treatment controls and telemetry as a risk to safe supply, and cryptography that will be deprecated in 2030 belongs in it.
Indirectly. Directive (EU) 2024/3019 entered into force on 1 January 2025 and must be transposed by 31 July 2027. It drives more monitoring, more digital control and energy-neutral plants by 2045, which means more connected instruments and more remote access at every treatment plant. The cyber obligations for wastewater come from NIS2 Annex I sector 7, and the two directives together mean a wastewater operator will be adding connected equipment at exactly the time it should be specifying algorithm agility.
An adversary records encrypted traffic or copies encrypted data today and stores it until a quantum computer can break the encryption. Network drawings, dosing logic, telemetry configurations and customer records stay useful to an attacker for decades, far longer than the time until a cryptographically relevant quantum computer is expected. Recorded vendor remote access sessions and telemetry tunnels carry the same risk. The 2023 Unitronics campaign shows that water systems are already on the target list for actors with the patience to collect.
Three things: extend the cryptographic inventory into OT, starting with the telemetry head-end and the IT-OT boundary; run a protocol scan and classify every outstation, PLC and dosing controller by whether it can take a cryptographic update; and write algorithm agility and a post-quantum firmware roadmap into every telemetry, RTU, PLC and SCADA tender from now on. Those three give your board or council the evidence to set priorities, and they slot into the next AWIA assessment or CAF return without a separate programme.
No. Replacement of algorithm-fixed outstations and controllers should follow your asset management plan and treatment works refurbishment in the 2031 to 2035 window. What matters now is that no new algorithm-fixed device enters the estate, and that the head-end, the boundary and the corporate systems, which run on standard hardware, migrate first. Gateway termination covers the outstations that wait.
Five numbers: inventory coverage of treatment works and telemetry links, the count of algorithm-fixed devices and their replacement dates, the records that must stay confidential beyond 2030, how many SCADA, telemetry and PLC vendors have a post-quantum firmware roadmap on file, and budget and milestones against the 2030 and 2035 deadlines and your next regulatory cycle.
Everything on this page. The two-minute readiness check scores your water and wastewater programme and routes you to the right next step. The free tools, including the OT Protocol Quantum Vulnerability Scanner and the OT Cryptographic Asset Prioritisation Matrix, 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. Board, council and executives start with the Certified Quantum Business Professional bootcamp, about 22 hours self-paced across ten modules. Security, risk and IT teams take Introduction to Quantum Cyber Security, four to five hours online with a QSECDEF certificate. OT and SCADA engineers and telemetry leads take PQC Migration for SCADA and OT Networks, a full day covering DNP3, IEC 61850, Modbus/TCP and OPC UA. 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 OT and SCADA engineers. 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 utility 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 water and wastewater 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. PQC Migration for SCADA and OT Networks is a full day of six hours, in person or online. The Quantum Cyber Security course is 4 to 5 hours, self-paced. The business bootcamp is self-paced at your own speed.
The free weekly call runs every Tuesday at 15:00 CET. Bring your question.
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For your utility
When your board, your operations team or your competent authority needs something specific, we shape the workshop, the training or the engagement around your protocols, your asset base and your regulatory cycle. Independent of any vendor.
Facilitated sessions for boards, councils, risk committees and operations leadership, built on your own device inventory, obligations and replacement cycles.
Private CPQCPM cohorts, the SCADA and OT course delivered on site or online for your engineers and your SCADA integrator, with team membership for the self-paced courses.
OT cryptographic inventory, protocol gap analysis, procurement language and specialist teams sourced from 1,500+ members across 900+ organisations.
Prefer email? Write to info@qsecdef.com and tell us about your timeline.
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