According to satnews.com, speakers at the MilSat Symposium during Silicon Valley Space Week stated on Thursday that commercial companies are moving toward post-quantum protections (encryption built to resist quantum-computing attacks) at a pace exceeding government agencies, as existing encryption approaches its 2030 cutoff. The panel, titled “Attack at Machine Speed: Cyber, AI, and the Counterspace Threat,” highlighted the growing gap between commercial and government progress in adopting new cryptographic standards.
Lt. Col. Vinny Pande, who leads materiel efforts and serves as deputy director at SpaceWERX, spoke on the panel as a government representative. He told the session that NSA Type 1 encryption standards constrain U.S. government work. Pande explained that the Space Force has no clear mandate to fund post-quantum protections, since it depends on the NSA and the intelligence community, describing the funding constraint as a barrier to investment. He also noted that SpaceWERX, the Space Force’s in-house venture arm, invests roughly $500 million to $700 million annually in startups, illustrating the scale of non-dilutive capital available to the commercial sector.
The panel warned that information stored at rest is likely already in the hands of adversaries, waiting for a quantum machine to break it. The report noted that NIST has published post-quantum standards, which panelists cited as a reason to begin adoption immediately. Panelists argued that postponing action until 2030 would be too late for satellites, given that spacecraft remain in service for many years.
David Gelerman, president and CEO of SpaceBridge, stated that now is the time to deploy security measures instead of waiting until 2030, starting with post-quantum key exchange and authentication. He said the steps “have to be implemented today, not in 2030.” Sanket Kamble, co-founder and CTO of threat-simulation company OrbitSec, cautioned that an attacker could sabotage a satellite mission without ever touching its AI, broadening the threat discussion beyond AI compromise to include other paths to mission failure.
Paul Struhsaker, the Arrasar Partners moderator, introduced the panel topic by linking quantum computing to the obsolescence of existing cryptographic keys and a federal deadline. He said federal agencies must move to post-quantum keys by 2030. Other panelists named in the report were Chris Badgett of Kratos, Brendan Harris of Dell Technologies Federal, Jeremy Hallett of Brindabella and Company, and Col. Jon Strizzi of Space Systems Command‘s Space Systems Integration Office, completing the roster of participants at the Silicon Valley Space Week MilSat Symposium session.
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