President Joe Biden has signed into law a bipartisan bill meant to help the federal government prevent data breaches enabled by quantum computers that could decrypt protected data.
Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act.
“I’m proud our bipartisan legislation to require the government to inventory its cryptographic systems, determine which are most at risk from quantum computing, and upgrade those systems accordingly is now law of the land,” Portman, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement published Wednesday.
The measure, among other impacts, will direct the Office of Management and Budget to prioritize the migration of federal information technology systems to post-quantum cryptography and come up with guidance for the federal assessment of critical systems based on the standards that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will issue for post-quantum cryptography.
The signing of the legislation came a week after the Senate passed the bill.
