There is an uncomfortable feature of the quantum computing revolution that gets lost amid the extraordinary promises of new drugs, advanced materials, better artificial intelligence and computational breakthroughs that would be impossible with today's machines.

Quantum computing doesn't have to arrive tomorrow to create a cybersecurity problem today.

Google is targeting 2029. The federal government has established a 2030 objective for critical systems. Post-quantum cryptography is no longer a future cybersecurity problem.

For years, quantum computing occupied a comfortable category:

Important. Transformational. But distant.

That assumption is becoming increasingly difficult to defend.