Designing a method for assessing the societal risks posed by quantum computing on public key infrastructures

Quantum computing poses a threat to the current cryptographic standards in place, supporting our digital society. This especially goes for PKI, that is essential for providing trust in sectors like banking, government and telecom sector. While there are several societal and risks assessments methods in literature, there is no ready to use method tailored to assess the societal risks posed by quantum computing on PKI systems. Therefore, the researchers chose to develop a tailored societal risks assessment (SRA) method based on the design science research approach. Actors that apply the method can do so to explore multiple risks categories, including risks to the assessing organisation, risks to society that are within the sphere of influence of the assessing organisation and the risks to society that arise from the presence of the quantum threat.