Quantum computing governance: balancing innovation, security, and global stability

June 4, 2025

Quantum computing is no longer a futuristic concept; it is an imminent technological revolution that will transform industries, economies, and Cyber Security. While its capabilities promise major advancements in fields such as cryptography, Artificial Intelligence, and complex problem-solving, it also introduces significant risks, such as the potential to break traditional encryption algorithms and create geopolitical power imbalances.

Therefore, its governance is not just a technical challenge but also a strategic priority to ensure security, ethical use, and equitable access.

As nations, companies, and academic and scientific institutions join the race toward achieving quantum supremacy, it is necessary to ask: Who controls the development and deployment of these technologies? How do we safeguard global security while promoting innovation? And what governance models will shape the quantum era?

Key principles for responsible governance

When we talk about quantum computing governance or quantum technologies (QT), we refer to the frameworks, policies, and regulations that guide the development, deployment, and responsible use of these technologies. The World Economic Forum (WEF) defines the following governance principles:

Transformative capabilities: harness these technologies and their applications for the benefit of humanity, while appropriately managing the associated risks.
Access to hardware infrastructure: ensure broad access to quantum computing hardware.
Open innovation: foster collaboration and a pre-competitive environment to accelerate technological development and practical applications.
Awareness building: ensure that the general public and quantum computing stakeholders are aware, engaged, and informed to enable dialogue and decision-making under proper oversight in their respective domains.
Workforce development and capacity building: build and maintain a workforce equipped for the quantum era.
Cyber Security: ensure the transition to a quantum-secure digital world.
Privacy: mitigate potential data privacy risks caused by quantum-powered theft and processing.
Standardization: promote standards and roadmapping mechanisms to accelerate technological advancement.
Sustainability: develop a sustainable future with and through responsible and continuous quantum computing innovation.

The core of governance lies in its impact on cyber resilience. Quantum computers have the potential to break widely used cryptographic protocols, rendering current security systems obsolete. Without a structured governance approach, adversarial states or malicious actors could exploit quantum advancements for harmful purposes, causing economic and financial losses, data breaches, and threats to national security.

Establishing clear governance mechanisms ensures that innovation can thrive without compromising Cyber Security.

Quantum technologies, like AI, risk becoming a tool for geopolitical and economic dominance without proper regulatory conditions. Countries with advanced quantum capabilities could gain an asymmetric advantage in Cyber Security, finance, and military applications. To prevent a quantum divide, international collaboration and cooperation are essential to guarantee equitable access to resources and talent.

It is crucial to establish guidelines regulating the use of quantum technology to prevent its concentration in the hands of a few organizations. Open-source quantum research initiatives, technology transfer and exchange agreements, and investment in quantum education in developing economies can help narrow the gap. Moreover, ensuring these technologies comply with international regulations on human rights and Cyber Security will help prevent misuse.

■ Quantum computers, particularly those implementing Shor’s algorithm, can break widely used public-key cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and ECC. This is a known HNDL vulnerability. To mitigate this, organizations must adopt quantum-resistant cryptography, or post-quantum cryptography (PQC).

We’ve already seen this through the NIST development of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, as governments and organizations prepare to transition.

The urgency of global quantum governance

Quantum governance demands the adoption of PQC algorithms across all critical industries or essential sectors, regulation for encryption updates and key management, and global cooperation to prevent quantum cyber warfare.

Quantum cyber risk assessments must be conducted to evaluate how quantum computing could impact an organization’s infrastructure and technological architecture. This includes:

Identifying encrypted data management processes.
Identifying vulnerable encryption protocols in existing systems.
Implementing proactive cryptographic agility to enable systems to transition to quantum-secure encryption.
Analyzing quantum cyber threats.

Governance highlights the need to develop a corporate roadmap for quantum transition, ensuring compliance with emerging and disruptive Cyber Security regulations before quantum threats materialize.

■ In the context of cyberspace operations, quantum computing introduces a reconfiguration and paradigm shift in cyber warfare and intelligence, as governments invest in quantum cryptography and quantum hacking capabilities to gain espionage and Cyber Security advantages. Nations with quantum supremacy will seek to gain the power to decrypt communications, leaving much exposed.

Conclusion

It is imperative to unite governance efforts, including the development of international treaties, Cyber Security and privacy guidelines to prevent the malicious use of quantum technologies in state-sponsored cyber conflicts, and the establishment of quantum arms control agreements that may be necessary to preserve global stability.

These technologies will directly transform industries and society, which means governance must be driven by standardization, collaboration, quantum cloud computing services, international policy harmonization, talent and capacity development, and a resilient quantum socio-economic fabric. It is essential to ensure an ethical, secure, and viable quantum future. The time to act is now.

Get our handbook on protecting data from the quantum threat

At Telefónica Tech we advocate for a cryptoagility-based strategy, enabling systems to adapt to new threats without disrupting operations.

■ We invite all organisations to access our complimentary handbook Strategic preparation for Post-Quantum Cryptography and take the first step towards a resilient cryptographic infrastructure ready for the quantum era.