Use case · Post-quantum readiness

Bring Zero Trust and PQC into one security program

Plan your post-quantum cryptography (PQC) transition around the assets and services your business depends on. Elisity is a security platform for users, devices, workloads and AI agents. Use it today to understand those assets and limit unnecessary access around the systems that can’t migrate yet. Elisity Quantum Posture shows which of those assets and services use quantum-vulnerable cryptography.

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Your migration will move at different speeds

A software update may be enough for some applications. For systems tied to vendor roadmaps, tightly coupled applications, or equipment that must remain in service for years, the transition takes more planning. Bring those systems into your Zero Trust program now so you can limit unnecessary access while their cryptographic upgrades are being planned.

Your migration will move at different speeds

Waiting for a cryptographically relevant quantum computer is too late for data that must stay confidential for years. In a “harvest now, decrypt later” attack, an adversary captures encrypted traffic today and keeps it until the public-key cryptography protecting it can be broken. Upgrading encryption later can’t protect what was already captured, which is why cryptographic discovery and migration planning start now.

A software update may be enough for some applications. For systems tied to vendor roadmaps, tightly coupled applications, or equipment that must remain in service for years, the transition takes more planning. Bring those systems into your Zero Trust program now so you can limit unnecessary access while their cryptographic upgrades are being planned.

Aerial view of segmented infrastructure illustrating controlled network access

Make progress with the controls you can apply today

Challenge

An inventory needs operational context

A list of algorithms and certificates doesn’t explain which business service an asset supports or which connections it needs.

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Elisity today

Establish the asset context

Elisity IdentityGraph™ combines network observations with context from identity, endpoint, CMDB, IoT and cloud tools into one continuously enriched record per asset, with the source of each attribute retained. Owners can see what each asset is, which business service it supports and what it needs to reach. Insights, powered by Elisity Intelligence, flags gaps and proposes classifications, Policy Groups and policies with the evidence behind each one.

Challenge

Critical systems can’t all migrate at once

An unsupported application or a long-lived operational asset may need to remain online while a replacement or upgrade is planned.

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Elisity today

Restrict access around those systems

Define the communications an asset needs and block other network paths. The Elisity Dynamic Policy Engine applies administrator-approved policy through supported existing network infrastructure. Virtual Edge connects that infrastructure from outside the traffic path, with no software agents on protected assets, no new security appliances and no re-IP for supported deployments. Least-privilege access reduces who can reach a system while its cryptography is upgraded or replaced. It doesn’t change that system’s encryption.

Read how to protect systems that can’t be upgraded to PQC

Challenge

Access changes must preserve essential services

Tightening access without understanding dependencies can interrupt the systems your organization relies on.

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Elisity today

Simulate policy before enforcement

Simulate proposed policies against observed traffic without enforcing them, review the impact with service owners, then decide what to enforce. St. Luke’s University Health Network completed its major segmentation groups across 15 hospitals in 46 days, after about a month of infrastructure preparation, without major outages. That was a segmentation rollout, not a PQC migration, and it shows access can be tightened around clinical systems without taking them down.

Read the St. Luke’s story

On the roadmap

Turn cryptographic findings into migration priorities.

Elisity Quantum Posture classifies the assets, internal services and external services Elisity observes on the network as quantum vulnerable, quantum ready or quantum safe, and shows posture by scope and over time. Because the same platform identifies each asset in Elisity IdentityGraph™ and enforces segmentation, teams can see which systems use quantum-vulnerable cryptography and decide where to tighten access while upgrades are underway. Cryptographic replacement stays with application and cryptography owners.

Quantum Posture sees the cryptography in observed traffic, not inside firmware or code. Where evidence is incomplete, an endpoint is marked insufficient evidence rather than guessed, and a quantum safe result describes the cryptography observed, not the whole asset.

Available in Elisity Quantum Posture
The workflow
  1. Elisity Quantum Posture

    Understand the cryptographic exposure

  2. Elisity IdentityGraph™

    Connect it to the business

    Assets, services, and the access they need

  3. Migration priorities

    Decide what to change next

    Plan upgrades and interim access controls

Built for environments where migration takes planning

This use case matters when sensitive information must remain confidential for years, business services depend on aging systems, or responsibility for cryptography spans multiple teams and suppliers. Those conditions appear across healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, public-sector organizations, and other enterprises.

Bring security architecture, network operations, and the owners of cryptography and critical applications into the same discussion. Start with the services that matter most and the systems that are hardest to change.

Resources

A practical starting point for the CISO

CISO Agenda Priority: Transition to Postquantum Cryptography Before It’s Too Late (And Too Expensive)

Read the licensed Gartner report to help frame ownership and the work ahead.

Preview of the Gartner report CISO Agenda Priority: Transition to Postquantum Cryptography Before It’s Too Late (And Too Expensive)

PQC readiness questions

What Elisity supports today and where to start.

Does microsegmentation replace post-quantum cryptography?

No. PQC migration changes the cryptography used to protect information and establish trust. Microsegmentation controls communication between assets. It can reduce reachable paths during the transition, but it doesn’t make vulnerable encryption quantum-resistant or protect encrypted data that has already been captured.

What can Elisity do today?

Elisity provides asset and identity context, policy simulation, and least-privilege network access control. Elisity Quantum Posture shows which observed assets and services use quantum-vulnerable cryptography. Teams can use those capabilities to reduce unnecessary access around systems awaiting migration. Quantum Posture sees cryptography in observed traffic, not inside firmware or code.

Does Elisity make my network quantum-safe?

No. Quantum resistance comes from migrating to post-quantum algorithms, such as those NIST standardized in FIPS 203, 204 and 205. Elisity limits which assets can reach each other, which reduces exposure while that migration happens.

How do you protect systems that can’t be upgraded to post-quantum cryptography?

Keep them in service with only the communications they need. Restrict other network paths around them, monitor their traffic, and plan their replacement, or an encrypting gateway where the data requires it. Elisity enforces that kind of least-privilege access through existing network infrastructure, without agents on the systems it protects.

What kinds of vendors does a PQC program need?

Usually several: cryptographic discovery and inventory, certificate and PKI lifecycle management, PQC-capable network and transport products, hardware security modules and libraries, and compensating controls for systems that can’t migrate on schedule. Elisity provides compensating access control today.

Can Elisity show which assets use quantum-vulnerable cryptography?

Yes. Elisity Quantum Posture classifies the assets, internal services and external services Elisity observes on the network as quantum vulnerable, quantum ready or quantum safe, and marks endpoints with insufficient evidence.

Will we need new hardware or sensors?

No. Elisity’s microsegmentation uses supported network infrastructure and doesn’t require an Elisity agent on protected assets. Elisity Quantum Posture collects its data using capabilities already built into supported network infrastructure, so it doesn’t need dedicated sensors either. Requirements for third-party tools and the broader cryptographic migration will depend on your environment.

Where should we start?

Choose a critical business service. Identify its systems and owners, review the cryptographic information you already have, and document the communications it needs. From there, plan the cryptographic changes and the access controls you can apply while that work proceeds.

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Do you have a PQC initiative?

Pick one critical service and we’ll run a scoped review with you. You get four outputs: its assets and owners, the communications it needs, current access gaps, and the cryptographic evidence still missing. That gives network, security and cryptography teams a shared starting point.
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