South Africa Inc must be aware of wider threats

south african enterprise Are not putting enough effort into understanding quantum computing and how it could threaten or benefit their businesses.

This is according to its director Phumzile Madonsela African Quantum Consortium (AQC), who told TechCentral in a recent interview that although AI is the current focus of corporate attention, quantum computing is next – and its impact on society could be more pronounced.

Madonsela said, “We have seen a lack of understanding of this technology among people, especially on the corporate side of things. One example is that given the rise of AI, there has also been an increase in cyber threats which keeps risk managers on their toes.”

“But there's another risk when quantum computing is commercialized. It will break existing encryption standards, so how can we protect organizations from it? That starts with senior leaders understanding the technology and knowing exactly what it means for their organizations.”

Estimates for Q-Day – the day when commercially available quantum computers will be able to break current encryption standards – vary. one in TechCentral article In September 2024, Antti Roponen, IBM Cybersecurity Services executive partner and global data and application security services leader, placed his Q-day prediction in the mid-2030s. IBM is one of the market leaders in quantum computing.

'significant threat'

Google, another major investor in technology, said last week It is moving to secure its ecosystem against quantum-powered cyber attacks by 2029, warning that progress in the area suggests Q-day will come sooner than expected.

“Quantum computers will pose a significant threat to current cryptographic standards, particularly encryption and digital signatures. The encryption threat is relevant today with store-now-decrypt-later attacks, while digital signatures are a future threat that requires a transition to post-quantum cryptography,” said Heather Adkins, Google's vice president of security engineering.

Reading: South Africa needs a national 'quantum defense strategy'

Madonsela said South Africa's financial sector is particularly vulnerable to quantum cyber threats. Citing Sanlam's recent Theo Mabaso's appointment As for the newly created role of Chief AI Officer, he urged Corporate South Africa to consider introducing quantum expertise at the executive level.

He argued that companies will not adopt quantum technologies unless they are aware of the immediate risks and opportunities presented by the technology. Part of AQC's job is to demonstrate the value of quantum to different industries, he said — and nothing happens without executive buy-in. He said having a quantum expert on the board would help facilitate more meaningful discussions.

“Sanlam's decision shows that they want to have a person who is dedicated to understanding how their strategy and business models will be affected by artificial intelligence. They will really focus on how other aspects like regulation will be affected. They will also have the interests of the business in mind, versus the approach where companies consult experts in other technologies like AI or quantum,” Madonsela said.

AQC is lobbying for the African Union to take a similar stance and appoint a person dedicated to quantum computing as part of the body's specialized technical committees. South Africa is the only country in the Union to have a quantum development road map, led by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation as well as organizations including AQC, the South African Quantum Technology Initiative and the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences.

maximum benefit

The most prominent use cases for the technology include industries that face NP-hard (non-deterministic polynomial-time) optimization problems, such as logistics, and areas with multivariate inputs, such as farming simulation and drug discovery. Of these, Madonsela said the financial services sector is likely to benefit the most from quantum computing.

Reading: First quantum cyber attack expected by 2030 – IBM

“In financial services, portfolio optimization is a use case that is very obvious, so your investment banks should be interested in it. Once companies identify the use cases that are relevant to them, you will see more specialized roles growing within organizations,” he said. – (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media