Quantum Computing & Cyber Risk
The quantum threat to cryptography, for the people who underwrite, model and reserve cyber. A large enough quantum computer breaks the public-key cryptography that secures almost everything, all at once. This course explains harvest now, decrypt later, the migration to post-quantum cryptography, and what a correlated cryptographic failure would mean for accumulation and reserving.
Reason about the quantum threat like an insurer, not a physicist
Quantum Computing & Cyber Risk is for the underwriters, modellers and actuaries who have to hold a view on a risk that has not happened yet and will not fail one insured at a time. It explains the threat in plain terms and stays on the part that matters to a portfolio: correlation, timing and reserving.
- Explain, without the physics, why a large enough quantum computer breaks today's public-key cryptography and what that does and does not put at risk.
- Describe harvest now, decrypt later, and reason about which data has a shelf life long enough to matter, so you can see the exposure that already exists today.
- Explain what a migration to post-quantum cryptography actually involves, why it is slow, and where insureds are most exposed while it is under way.
- Reason about correlated cryptographic failure as an accumulation and reserving problem, and ask insureds the right questions about their crypto-agility.
Eleven lessons, about eleven to fourteen hours
Self-paced and on demand. Each lesson ends with a short knowledge check; a final assessment, earns the certificate of completion.
01 Why quantum matters to insurers now
The one-line version of the threat, why it is a systemic risk rather than a single insured's problem, and why a future event already changes exposure today.
02 Cryptography today, in plain terms
What public-key cryptography does, where it sits in the systems insureds run, and why so much of the digital economy quietly depends on it.
03 What a quantum computer can and cannot do
The honest picture: what these machines are, what they are good at, and the gap between today's hardware and a cryptographically relevant one.
04 The algorithms that break cryptography
Shor and Grover without the mathematics: what each one threatens, why public-key schemes fall and symmetric ones only weaken, and what that split means.
05 Harvest now, decrypt later
The attack that is already happening: encrypted data captured today to be read once the hardware arrives, and how to judge which data has a shelf life that matters.
06 Post-quantum cryptography and the migration
The new standards, what replacing cryptography across an estate actually involves, and why migration is measured in years, not a patch cycle.
07 Crypto-agility and where insureds are exposed
Why some organisations can swap cryptography quickly and others cannot, and the signs that separate a prepared insured from an exposed one.
08 Timelines, uncertainty and how to hold a view
Reasoning under deep uncertainty about when the threat lands, and how to carry a defensible view without either dismissing it or overreacting.
09 Correlated failure and cyber accumulation
The heart of the course: why a cryptographic break is correlated rather than idiosyncratic, and what that does to a cyber portfolio's accumulation picture.
10 Reserving, capital and scenario design
Building a quantum scenario into reserving and capital, the assumptions that drive it, and how it sits alongside the systemic scenarios you already run.
11 Building a quantum-risk view
Turning the course into a position your team can act on, the underwriting questions to add, and the final assessment that earns your certificate of completion.
Built for the desk that has to price a risk that has not happened yet
You do not need a background in physics or cryptography. Quantum Computing & Cyber Risk assumes a senior insurance, modelling or actuarial role and builds the quantum understanding from there, so you can hold a defensible view of a systemic exposure.
Cyber underwriters
You are writing cyber and want a grounded view of a correlated exposure before it shapes your appetite and your questions.
Risk modellers and actuaries
You have to reason about accumulation, reserving and capital for a scenario the historical data cannot help you with.
Senior risk managers
You need a defensible position on quantum risk for a portfolio, a board or a regulator, without overstating or dismissing it.
About this certificate course
No. Quantum Computing & Cyber Risk is a certificate course, which is shorter than a certification. You earn a certificate of completion, not a certification credential.
There is a final assessment. Each lesson has a short knowledge check along the way, and the final assessment confirms you are ready for the certificate of completion.
No. It is a one-off purchase. There is no renewal and no maintenance fee. Your certificate of completion does not expire.
Yes. The course earns CIA CE credits, which count toward keeping a Cyber Insurance Academy certification current. The exact credit value is being confirmed. It is not part of a certification itself.
No. The course assumes a senior insurance, modelling or actuarial role and no physics. It explains quantum computing and cryptography in plain terms and always ties them back to accumulation, reserving and cover.
Hold a defensible view on quantum risk
About eleven to fourteen hours to a working grounding in the quantum threat to cryptography and what it means for cyber accumulation and reserving. A certificate course, earning CIA CE credits.