About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of quantum computing on cryptography and the urgent need for post-quantum security.

Most of the cryptography securing the internet today rests on mathematical problems that classical computers cannot solve in any reasonable timeframe. That assumption is now being tested. Recent advances in quantum computing have dramatically compressed timelines, and many in the industry have set a target of full post-quantum security by 2029, meaning a complete migration to algorithms designed to remain secure against quantum attacks. Bas Westerbaan is a cryptography engineer at Cloudflare, where he leads the company’s efforts to migrate to post-quantum cryptography. In this episode, Bas joins Kevin Ball to discuss how quantum computers threaten public key cryptography, what post-quantum algorithms actually are and how they work, the timeline shifts that have made quantum readiness feel so urgent, and what software engineers need to do now to prepare their systems. Kevin Ball or KBall, is the vice president of engineering at Mento and an independent coach for engineers and engineering leaders. He co-founded and served as CTO for two companies, founded the San Diego JavaScript meetup, and organizes the AI inaction discussion group through Latent Space. Please click here to see…

More episodes of Software Engineering Daily

• Agentic DevOps at AWS · July 20, 2026 · 49 min
• AURA and Open-Source Agents for Production Operations · July 14, 2026 · 53 min
• Eric Ries on Why Good Companies Go Bad · July 9, 2026 · 50 min
• SED News: Restricted Models, IDE Wars, and the DeepMind Mafia · July 7, 2026 · 52 min
• Grafana's Approach to AI-Native Observability · July 2, 2026 · 48 min
• Building Software That People Love · June 30, 2026 · 46 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Software Engineering Daily podcast page.