The Quantum Paradox & the Race to Get Encryption-Ready

# The Quantum Paradox & the Race to Get Encryption-Ready > Google says it will be able to break RSA encryption by 2029. Third-party actors are already collecting encrypted data on the assumption they'll be able to read it later. [Read on Substack](https://lawwhatsnext.substack.com/p/the-quantum-paradox-and-the-race) · 2026-04-28 · Law What's Next --- A quick reminder: Law://WhatsNext is our vehicle to explore through dialogue (or occasional reflection) how leading lawyers, educators and technologists are using emerging tech to evolve how we practice and administer legal services. No hype — just practical conversations. 🎙️ This week we sit down with Rebecca Keating and Laura Wright — barristers at 4 Pump Court and the co-authors of A Practical Guide to Quantum Computing and the Law. Both are a rare breed of Barrister with technical credentials to complement their deep legal expertise. Rebecca worked in-house at Dropbox before being called to the Bar in 2017, sits on the ICO’s Technology Advisory Panel, and has acted in one of the only quantum-related cases to pass through the UK courts. Laura took an MSc in Computing Science at Imperial mid-career — her final project was a new coding language for legal contracts — and now writes and speaks regularly on smart contracts, AI liability, and quantum risk. So when Google announced earlier this year that it expects to be able to break RSA encryption by 2029, Rebecca and Laura were among the few people in the legal industry able to speak to it (without us needing to reach for the science-fiction shelf). Listen Now Available here or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. What You’ll Learn What is Quantum Computing — Alex surprises us all with his own definition and a sneak preview into how he likes to prepare for our podcast conversations! 👀 The Quantum Paradox — Rebecca’s framing for the central tension of the technology: “There is the ability of quantum computers to upend the security systems that are the basis upon which we keep information safe, but there’s also the capability to have even more secure systems than we have ever had.” Harvest Now, Decrypt Later — This is not a future threat. Third-party actors are already collecting RSA-encrypted data they can’t read today on the assumption they’ll be able to decrypt it within a few years. NIST’s quantum-readiness window of 2030–2035 is, in Rebecca’s view, too late to start the conversation — particularly for anyone holding sensitive medical, political, or nationally significant data. Nicholas Thompson recently covered this in his popular “Most Interesting Thing in Tech” daily video series: Contracting for Quantum Computing as a Service — Customers won’t own quantum computers — they’ll access them remotely on a pay-as-you-go basis. Laura walks through what features are likely to make “QCaaS” contracts genuinely different from SaaS. Subscribe now Key References Connect with Rebecca Keating — Barrister at 4 Pump Court | Member, ICO Technology Advisory Panel Connect with Laura Wright — Barrister at 4 Pump Court | Co-host, 4 Pump Court podcast Their book — A Practical Guide to Quantum Computing and the Law (Law Brief Publishing, December 2024) — the centrepiece of the conversation and the practitioner text we’d recommend to any lawyer starting to think seriously about this. The Law of AI (2nd edition, Sweet & Maxwell) — Rebecca and Laura author the chapter on AI and Professional Liability. Society for Computers and Law (SCL) — Rebecca and Laura’s recent SCL webinar on quantum legal issues was the catalyst for this episode. Both (+ Tom) are members of the SCL - a leading educational charity for the tech law community in the UK. The £2bn UK quantum strategy (March 2026) and the NIST post-quantum standards — the policy and standards form an additional backdrop to our conversation. If you enjoyed this conversation please do share it with someone — or a community — who you feel would benefit from listening. And if you have any more time, tell us what resonated, what didn’t, and rate the show. It really does help us grow the audience and get great guests. We hope you have a great week! Tom & Alex Thanks for reading Law://WhatsNext! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share