As quantum computing advances from theory toward practical reality, organizations are under increasing pressure to understand and manage cryptographic risk. Regulatory guidance, evolving threat models, and long-lived data exposure are converging to make post-quantum cryptography (PQC) readiness a near-term priority—not a distant concern.
Recognizing this challenge, Patero, a pioneer in post-quantum cryptography, has introduced its Cryptographic Inventory Workshop, a structured, facilitated engagement designed to help organizations rapidly establish cryptographic visibility, ownership, and a practical execution plan. The workshop serves as a foundational step in post-quantum transition planning and cryptographic risk management.
Why Cryptographic Inventory Has Become a Business Imperative
Government direction such as the U.S. National Security Memorandum-10 (NSM-10) is accelerating expectations around planning for quantum-resistant cryptography. At the same time, the ongoing threat of Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL) attacks has heightened urgency. Adversaries can already collect encrypted data today with the intent of decrypting it later once quantum capabilities mature.
Despite broad awareness of these risks, many organizations face a common operational barrier: they do not know where cryptography exists across their environment, who owns it, or what will fail when algorithms change. Cryptography is deeply embedded across networks, applications, cloud services, databases, and codebases, yet remains largely invisible to most enterprises.
Without accurate, current cryptographic inventory, post-quantum migration, regulatory compliance, and incident response become exercises in guesswork.
From Uncertainty to Action: The Purpose of the Workshop
Patero’s Cryptographic Inventory Workshop is a pre-inventory engagement designed to eliminate that uncertainty. Rather than jumping directly into tooling or assessments, the workshop helps organizations define scope, align stakeholders, and establish a repeatable plan for executing cryptographic discovery at scale.
According to Patero CEO Crick Waters, many organizations understand the post-quantum threat but lack a clear starting point. The workshop addresses this gap by turning cryptographic risk into an executable, governed program—one that supports informed decision-making as PQC migration timelines accelerate.
Grounded in a Proven ACDI Methodology
The workshop is built on Patero’s Automated Cryptography Discovery and Inventory (ACDI) methodology, a field-tested approach developed to surface cryptographic risk, establish defensible evidence, and implement governance for an attack surface most enterprises cannot currently see.
This methodology focuses on creating visibility that is both actionable and sustainable. Cryptographic findings are not treated as a one-time assessment, but as a living risk domain that integrates into ongoing security and operational workflows.
A Cross-Functional Model for Managing Cryptographic Risk
Delivered virtually, with optional onsite delivery, the workshop is intentionally structured for a focused, cross-functional audience. Participants typically span security, risk, IT operations, cloud and network engineering, application security, PKI compliance, and legal teams.
This design reflects a critical reality: cryptographic risk cannot be owned by a single function. The workshop aligns participants around shared vocabulary, decision-making authority, and governance models, helping organizations avoid stalled ownership and fragmented remediation.
The engagement can be completed in one full day or two half-day sessions, minimizing disruption while delivering practical outcomes.
Five Pillars of Cryptographic Discovery
Patero structures the workshop around five core pillars of cryptographic discovery:
- External networks
- Internal networks
- IT assets
- Databases
- Code
For each pillar, teams define concrete methods for information gathering, including coverage strategies, sampling decisions, quality controls, and evidence requirements. Participants receive immediately usable guidance on tools and APIs, along with example queries, checklists, and techniques for correlating certificates, keys, and services to accountable owners.
Building the Foundation for Post-Quantum Readiness
Most importantly, the workshop establishes how cryptographic discoveries will be tracked, validated, prioritized, and governed over time. This creates a durable foundation for crypto-agility, post-quantum readiness, and regulatory defensibility.
In short, the Cryptographic Inventory Workshop enables organizations to move from knowing they have cryptographic risk to proving they are managing it.
About Patero
Patero is a pioneer in quantum secure communications. Patero’s cryptographic discovery and inventory solution quantifies risk and prioritizes mitigating vulnerabilities against current and future cryptographic attacks. Patero’s crypto-agile post-quantum security solutions hybridize classic encryption with NIST-standardized quantum-resistant algorithms to mitigate cryptographic vulnerabilities and protect data-in-motion from steal-now, decrypt-later, and future direct-decryption attacks. Patero is privately held and based in the Quantum Startup Foundry at the University of Maryland, College Park. For more information, visit patero.io. For investment opportunities, contact the company’s CEO, Crick Waters, at crick@patero.io.
