A sign of this momentum was the UN General Assembly declaring 2025 the “International Year of Quantum Science and Technology”, underscoring the strategic importance of quantum advances worldwide.

Against this backdrop, a global race is underway. The United States, Europe and China are accelerating their investments to gain an advantage in this disruptive technology. And the stakes go far beyond science – they extend to economic competitiveness, digital sovereignty and the security of critical infrastructure.

But what will quantum technologies actually change? Over what timeframe will they reshape our digital environment? What new opportunities could they unlock for digital identity and trust services? And what risks might undermine the very foundations of today’s digital security models?

To shed light on the implications, our CEO Fabrice Aresu, shares his vision of a technology that, despite its promises, is already raising serious concerns about security and sovereignty.

Quantum computing at the heart of digital sovereignty

First conceptualised by Paul Benioff in 1980, a quantum computer is a machine capable of manipulating quantum states (superposition and entanglement) to perform calculations far beyond the reach of classical computers. The potential applications are vast – from accelerating R&D through molecular modelling to optimising complex real time decision-making and, ultimately, securing (or compromising) today’s encryption systems.

What was still considered purely theory just a few years ago is now becoming reality. In 2025, IBM and HSBC published a pilot study demonstrating how a quantum system could improve bond-trading predictions compared with traditional analytical methods.

But beyond these use cases lies a much broader question about digital sovereignty. States and large corporations are determined to lead this new technological wave rather than risk becoming dependent on foreign technologies in such a disruptive field.

In the United States, policies such as the National Quantum Initiative and the CHIPS and Science Act channel several billion dollars each year into quantum development, much of it through private investment. In April 2025, for example, IBM announced a massive $150 billion five-year plan in the US, with a portion dedicated to quantum technologies. China is taking a similar approach. In 2022, it announced over $15 billion in public funding for its national quantum programs, making it the world’s most heavily committed country in terms of state investment.

Europe, meanwhile, has allocated nearly €11 billion in public funding since 2020 but still attracts only 5% of global private investment, compared with more than 50% for US-based companies.

For LuxTrust, positioning ourselves early is a strategic imperative. “We cannot wait for quantum to disrupt our infrastructure,” says Fabrice Aresu. “We need to be players in this transformation, not spectators. The quantum revolution is not just a technical issue; it is a question of digital control for the entire continent.”

By investing in research, European partnerships and pilot projects, we aim to ensure that our services remain under European control – even when faced with quantum computing power capable of breaking today’s encryption mechanisms. And behind the research efforts lie very concrete changes, bringing both new security guarantees and significant risks.

Opportunities and risks of the post-quantum era for trust services

Quantum computing also opens up new possibilities for strengthening the reliability of trust services. New key-distribution methods, such as Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), make it possible to exchange cryptographic keys over channels that are secure against interception, including satellite links. For digital identity and trust services (electronic signatures, archiving and more), this could represent a major leap forward in confidentiality by making communications significantly more secure.

But these advances come with a serious drawback. The anticipated “Q-Day” – the moment when a quantum computer becomes capable of breaking classical algorithms such as RSA or ECC in real time would mark a critical watershed. Today’s infrastructure still depends heavily on these cryptographic standards. If a quantum computer was able to compromise today’s algorithms, the consequences for digital identity and electronic signatures would be immediate.

As Fabrice Aresu explains: “A compromised identity or signature key would enable attackers to forge documents that are indistinguishable from genuine ones. In practice, two versions of the same contract or supporting document could exist: one actually signed by the parties, and the other artificially generated but seemingly just as ‘valid’.” A court or public authority would then be unable to determine which version of the document is the authentic one.

This is precisely why digital archiving with probative value plays such a crucial role. It does not simply store a file but it provides additional evidence like timestamping, cryptographic hashes and traceability. Even if an electronic signature was forged, an attacker would also need to alter the archive itself to give their forgery a veneer of legitimacy, making the attack significantly harder to carry out.

The advent of quantum technologies demands foresight, because the legal and technical continuity of trust services depends on it. This paradigm shift is already shaping how we secure identities, signatures and archives.

LuxTrust at the forefront of anticipating post-quantum challenges

LuxTrust has been migrating to post-quantum algorithms for several years now.

As Fabrice Aresu explains: “We have already migrated some of our certification authorities to new keys and algorithms, relying on the options currently considered the most robust at this stage of research. The goal is to stay ahead of current standards and prepare our infrastructure for the next generation of threats. We are committed to staying consistently above minimum requirements, reducing risk and protecting the most critical systems.”

This strategy is supported by a clear implementation timeline. Between 2026 and 2027, we expect to be able to test our solutions on real quantum computers, using the access provided by our industrial and academic partners. These trials will help validate the resilience of the new algorithms.

“We are confident in these technologies, but until they are tested on quantum machines that are more reliable than those available today, we cannot be absolutely certain,” points out Fabrice Aresu.

Apart from technical preparation, LuxTrust also plays a key role in European cooperation by participating in research consortia and funding academic research on post-quantum cryptography.

This forward-looking approach is all the more essential given the sensitive environments we protect from government systems to critical infrastructure and financial platforms. By combining technical innovation, strategic partnerships and European regulatory alignment, LuxTrust aims to prepare for the post-quantum era with the clear objective: to ensure that our services remain robust and trustworthy despite the advent of this disruptive technology.