NICS Ltd.

Picture an unlocked door in a rough part of town.

That's a Windows 10 PC after October 14, 2025.

Every day someone walks past. Jiggles the handle. Most keep walking. Eventually one stops. Tries the door. It opens.

That's how it starts.

Not with a Hollywood hacker in a hoodie. Not with some complicated movie-style cyber attack.

It starts with a scan. A list of internet addresses. Software that automatically tests for known weaknesses on millions of computers per hour.

If your computer is on that list and it's running Windows 10, the test eventually finds something. The receptionist clicks an email. A laptop on the kitchen counter checks for updates that never come. A printer driver from 2019 has a flaw nobody bothered to fix because nobody is fixing things anymore.

One door opens.

Then the bad part.

Within hours, the attacker is on every Windows machine in your office. They've copied your client files. They've got the bank login. They've found the QuickBooks data.

You don't know any of this yet.

You'll find out Monday morning when nothing turns on. 🔒

This is post 2 of our series on Windows 10 end-of-support, written for Saskatchewan business owners who don't want to translate IT-speak into English.

If you've got even one Windows 10 machine still running at the office, comment "next" below and I'll tag you when post 3 drops with the first real Canadian example.

Last week I posted about quantum computing and why it's a real threat to business data security. A lot of people had the same question:

"Okay, I get it. But what are we supposed to DO about it?"

Fair question. The answer has a name: post-quantum cryptography. And it's not as complicated as it sounds.

Here's the simplest way I can explain it.

Right now, the encryption that protects your email, your banking, your VPN, your cloud files — it all works because it's built on math problems that regular computers can't solve fast enough to be useful. That's what keeps the bad guys out. Your data is technically visible, but cracking the math would take thousands of years. So nobody bothers.

Quantum computers change that equation. They solve those specific math problems fast. Really fast.

So the smartest cryptographers on the planet spent eight years building new encryption algorithms based on completely different math. Math that neither regular computers NOR quantum computers can crack efficiently.

That's post-quantum cryptography. New locks that quantum keys can't open.

And it's not theoretical. NIST — the U.S. standards body — finalized the first three standards in August 2024. Google already has it built into Chrome. Microsoft has rolled it into Azure and Windows updates. Cisco is shipping quantum-safe firewall firmware later this year.

Here's what the timeline looks like:

→ January 2027: All new U.S. national security systems must use quantum-safe encryption
→ 2030: All existing applications must be migrated
→ 2035: Everything must be quantum-resilient. No exceptions.

Canada has its own deadlines — federal departments had to submit migration plans by this month.

"But I'm not the government." I hear you. But here's the thing — your cyber insurance will start asking about this. Your bigger clients will require it in vendor assessments. And the tools you already use — Microsoft 365, Chrome, your firewall — will all ship with PQC built in through normal updates.

The key is making sure you're not running old, unsupported systems that will never get those updates. If you're still on Windows 10, or an aging server with no upgrade path, you're not just behind on today's security. You're locked out of tomorrow's.

That's exactly the kind of thing proactive IT management catches before it becomes a crisis.

At NICS we're already building post-quantum readiness into our technology planning for clients. If you missed last week's post on why quantum computing matters for your business, scroll back on our page — it's worth the read.

And if you want to talk about where your business stands, reach out. No pressure, no pitch. Just a straight conversation.

nics.ca | 306-244-3551

Here's something that should make every business owner sit up and pay attention.

Right now — today — intelligence agencies around the world are vacuuming up encrypted data. Your emails. Your financial records. Your client files. They can't read any of it yet.

The keyword there is yet.

They're banking on quantum computers catching up. Capture it now, crack it later. It's called "harvest now, decrypt later," and it's not science fiction. It's documented strategy.

Here's why the timeline just got a lot shorter.

Last week, researchers from Google and a quantum startup called Oratomic published papers showing that quantum computers capable of breaking internet encryption may arrive far sooner than anyone expected. AI helped accelerate the breakthrough. Cloudflare — which secures a massive chunk of the internet — immediately moved its quantum-readiness deadline up to 2029.

Meanwhile, IBM just demonstrated a quantum computer accurately simulating the properties of real materials for the first time. A silicon-based processor performed fault-tolerant logical operations — a first in the history of quantum computing. An Israeli startup raised $24 million to build a million-qubit quantum machine.

This isn't next decade. This is this month's news.

So what does this mean for a small or medium-sized business in Saskatchewan?

It means the encryption protecting your banking, your client data, your emails, and your VPN has an expiration date. NIST has already finalized new post-quantum cryptography standards. The NSA requires quantum-safe algorithms on all new national security systems by January 2027. By 2035, every system touching national security must be quantum-resilient. No exceptions.

If governments are moving this fast, that tells you something about the urgency.

But quantum isn't just a threat — it's also an opportunity. Quantum computing is already being applied to materials science, drug discovery, and supply chain optimization. AI's energy consumption is becoming a serious sustainability problem, and quantum offers a path to dramatically more efficient computation. The businesses that understand this technology early will have a real advantage.

The good news? You don't have to figure this out alone. Start here:

→ Know what encryption you're using and where
→ Ask your IT provider about post-quantum readiness
→ Start planning upgrades before you're forced into them

This is what we do at NICS. We've been tracking quantum computing since 2021 because we believe the businesses that prepare early don't just survive disruption — they use it. If you want to talk about what quantum computing means for your business, reach out. The conversation is free, and the clock is already ticking.

nics.ca | 306-244-3551