Today's Edition
BATOOL GHAITH (ABU DHABI)
The UAE is moving to prepare government entities and critical sectors for a future in which quantum computers could challenge widely used encryption methods, with cybersecurity experts saying early action is essential to protect sensitive data that may need to remain secure for years.
Speaking to Aletihad at GISEC Global 2026, Adnan Bassem Fakhouri, Customer Delivery and Success Engineer at QuantumGate, and Victor Juan Mateu, Chief Researcher at the Cryptography Research Center at Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII), said the country is already taking steps towards post-quantum cybersecurity rather than waiting for sufficiently powerful quantum computers to emerge.
According to experts, the main concern is the “harvest now, decrypt later” threat.
Attackers could collect encrypted information today and retain it until quantum computing develops sufficiently to break the encryption protecting it, Fakhouri explained.
“When we begin this transition now, it allows us to mitigate the threats,” Fakhouri told Aletihad.
The first requirement, he added, is visibility. Organisations need to understand what cryptography they currently use before determining how it should be replaced or upgraded.
Fakhouri said QuantumGate is working with the UAE Cybersecurity Council on a national-level programme focused on post-quantum cryptography, alongside the TII.
The programme covers awareness, training, discovery and eventual implementation of post-quantum cryptography across entities that fall under the council’s cybersecurity requirements, according to Fakhouri.
As part of that work, a national Crypto Discovery Tool has been launched to allow government entities to identify and assess the cryptographic technologies already operating across their environments.
Fakhouri said that the objective is to determine how prepared those systems are for a transition to encryption designed to remain secure in the post-quantum era.
“Without a sufficiently detailed picture of existing cryptographic systems, future migration efforts could be built on an incomplete foundation,” he noted.
That becomes particularly important in government and critical sectors where systems may handle sensitive information spanning infrastructure, healthcare, defence and other areas, Fakhouri added.
In this regard, he indicated that a strong governing body is important in coordinating the transition across different sectors and ensuring organisations move towards a common level of preparedness.
Lifespan of Information
Mateu said the challenge is not simply whether quantum computers can break current encryption today, but how long sensitive data needs to remain protected.
Communications and information encrypted now could potentially remain valuable years into the future, he said, which means the timing of migration matters.
“If your data that is taken today is then open in five years, but if you migrate in three years, then the data is open in two years,” he said, explaining why organisations need to consider the lifespan of the information they are protecting.
The longer sensitive information needs to remain confidential, the stronger the case for transitioning early, he added.
Mateu said post-quantum security is among the areas where the UAE is acting ahead of broader adoption in other markets.
He described the country as being early in developing policy around the transition, creating an opportunity not only to strengthen cyber resilience but also to develop local technological capabilities.
Security and Future Ready Tech Key
For Fakhouri, the transition is particularly relevant as Abu Dhabi continues to expand digitally connected government services. He pointed to TAMM, Abu Dhabi’s unified government services platform, as an example of how multiple public-sector services can be connected through a single digital environment.
Such platforms can involve sensitive citizen data, including personal and financial information, making cybersecurity an essential part of their design, he said.
“In the context of Abu Dhabi’s digital transformation and becoming a fully AI-native and digital-native government, security and future ready technology should be at the core,” Fakhouri said.
He said the same principle applies across other interconnected sectors, including infrastructure, healthcare and government services.
Protecting increasingly connected environments requires not only technology but people with the right understanding of how those systems interact, he added. “The main cybersecurity product that is needed is people,” Fakhouri said.
Mateu said that as the UAE started its transition early, local companies could have an opportunity to position their technologies before the shift becomes widespread elsewhere.
He also emphasised that sectors such as energy require cybersecurity protections that extend beyond cryptography alone. At the same time, artificial intelligence is adding another layer to the changing threat environment.
Mateu said AI has already helped both defenders and attackers, as security teams can use it to identify threats faster, while malicious actors can also use it to find weaknesses and accelerate attacks.
As energy systems, AI platforms and other connected technologies increasingly depend on one another, that relationship creates both additional risks and new defensive capabilities, he said.
