Episode 103
The Clock Is Ticking: Navigating Quantum Risk and the Path to Crypto Agility
In Episode 103 of the Cybersecurity Readiness Podcast Series, Dr. Dave Chatterjee is joined by Peterson Gutierrez—Vice President of Information Security at Barracuda Networks and a 28-year cybersecurity veteran with experience spanning private industry, the Big Four, and New York City Cyber Command—to examine one of the most consequential and underestimated challenges facing security leaders today: the quantum computing threat and what it truly means to become cryptographically agile.
Opening with a vivid scenario—a healthcare organization whose encrypted data is exfiltrated today and decrypted after a quantum breakthrough years from now—Dr. Chatterjee introduces the concept of Q Day risk: the danger is not a dramatic breach tomorrow, but decisions made today that leave organizations exposed later. The episode moves beyond the industry’s fixation on which post-quantum algorithm to adopt, making the case that algorithm selection is the wrong problem to solve. The right goal is crypto agility: the organizational discipline to abstract encryption from code and adapt continuously as the cryptographic landscape evolves.
Framed through Dr. Chatterjee’s Commitment–Preparedness–Discipline (CPD) lens, the conversation delivers a clear and actionable message: crypto agility is not a technical upgrade—it is a leadership, architecture, and governance challenge that requires executive ownership, modular system design, proactive vendor engagement, and continuous organizational discipline before Q Day makes inaction catastrophic.
To access and download the entire podcast summary with discussion highlights - https://www.dchatte.com/episode-103-the-clock-is-ticking-navigating-quantum-risk-and-the-path-to-crypto-agility/
Connect with Host Dr. Dave Chatterjee
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dchatte/
Website: https://dchatte.com/
Books Published
Cybersecurity Readiness: A Holistic and High-Performance Approach
Articles & Cases Published
Chatterjee, D. (2026). Root: Automating the Remediation Gap, Ivey Publishing, Jan 7, 2026.
Chatterjee, D. and Leslie, A. (2024). “Ignorance is not bliss: A human-centered whole-of-enterprise approach to cybersecurity preparedness,” Business Horizons, Accepted on Oct 29, 2024.
Chatterjee, D. (2023). “Mission critical – How American Cancer Society successfully and securely migrated to the cloud amid the pandemic,” I by IMD, March 13, 2023.
Chatterjee, D. (2022). “Preventing security breaches must start at the top,” I by IMD, September 28, 2022, Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland
Benz, M. and Chatterjee, D. (2020). “Calculated Risk? A Cybersecurity Evaluation Tool for SMEs,” Business Horizons, available online from May 4, 2020
Chatterjee, D. (2019). “Should Executives Go To Jail Over Cyber Attacks,” Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Vol 29, Issue 1, pp. 1-3.
Abraham, C., Chatterjee, D., and Sims, R. (2019). “Muddling through cybersecurity: Insights from the U.S. healthcare industry,” Business Horizons, July 2019.
