The quantum revolution is not coming. It is already here and Malaysia is racing to be at the front of it.
There is a quiet storm brewing in the world of computing. One that will not crash your app or lag your video call but could, if left unchecked, render the encryption protecting your banking credentials, health records and national secrets completely useless.
That storm is quantum computing. Malaysia just made a very loud statement that it is ready to face it.
MIMOS and the Quantum Ambition
In February 2025, Malaysia’s national R&D agency MIMOS Berhad launched the country’s first Quantum Intelligence Centre at MIMOS Quantum Day 2025, officiated by the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, YB Tuan Chang Lih Kang.
But this is not just a ribbon-cutting exercise. MIMOS is building an entire national movement around a concept they call Quantum Intelligence: a convergence of three forces:
- Quantum Computing
- Artificial Intelligence
- Advanced Algorithms
Their CEO, Dr. Saat Shukri Embong, frames it plainly: “Why now? Because quantum tech is reaching maturity and those who act today will shape the global power balance tomorrow.”
He is not wrong.
Why Quantum Intelligence Changes Everything
Here is the reality about AI as we know it today: it is hungry. Large language models, data analytics and real-time simulations all demand enormous computing power. Classical processors are starting to hit their physical limits.
Quantum processors do not just solve this problem. They redefine it entirely. When AI runs on quantum hardware, models can process data exponentially faster than anything silicon can offer today.
MIMOS sees this combination of quantum and AI as the foundation for future breakthroughs in:
- Drug discovery (simulating molecular interactions at quantum scale)
- Climate modelling (running complex forecasts that classical computers cannot handle)
- Smart cities (optimising logistics, energy grids and urban infrastructure in real time)
- Finance (faster fraud detection and portfolio optimisation)
For Malaysia specifically, the vision is to become ASEAN’s leading Quantum Hub by 2035, backed by a National Quantum Policy covering R&D, talent, regulation and international engagement.
The Dark Side of Quantum: Your Encryption Is at Risk
Here is where things get uncomfortable.
The same quantum power that accelerates scientific discovery can also be pointed at your encryption. To understand why, you need to understand how today’s encryption actually works, because the threat is not abstract. It is mathematical.
How RSA encryption works and why it is vulnerable
RSA, which secures the vast majority of internet traffic today, is built on a simple but powerful idea: multiplying two very large prime numbers together is easy, but reversing the process (figuring out which two primes produced the result) is extraordinarily hard for a classical computer. A 2048-bit RSA key involves a number with 617 decimal digits. The world’s most powerful supercomputers would take hundreds of trillions of years to factor it through brute force. That gap between easy and hard is what keeps your data safe.
Quantum computers break that assumption entirely.
In 1994, mathematician Peter Shor developed what is now called Shor’s Algorithm, a method that allows a quantum computer to factor large numbers exponentially faster than any classical machine. The problem that once took longer than the age of the universe collapses to something achievable in hours or days on a sufficiently powerful quantum system.
Today’s quantum computers are not yet powerful enough to run Shor’s Algorithm on real-world key sizes. The largest number ever factored using Shor’s Algorithm on a real quantum computer is 21. Breaking RSA-2048 is estimated to require roughly 20 million physical qubits operating with very low error rates, which is far beyond anything that exists today. The Global Risk Institute estimates there is a significant probability that RSA-2048 could be breakable by the mid-2030s. In 2025, a Google Quantum AI researcher published a pre-print paper estimating that RSA-2048 could be broken in under a week using fewer than one million noisy qubits, an order of magnitude lower than previous estimates. The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed but it signals that algorithmic improvements keep coming. Attacks only get better over time.
Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which many modern systems use as a lighter-weight alternative to RSA, is also vulnerable to Shor’s Algorithm. Because ECC requires fewer qubits to break than comparably secure RSA keys, it may actually be the first to fall.
The threat that is already happening: Harvest Now Decrypt Later
Here is the part that most people miss. You do not need a quantum computer to be at risk today.
Nation-state actors and sophisticated adversaries are already collecting and storing encrypted data at scale: intercepted VPN sessions, archived emails, recorded TLS connections and financial transactions. The strategy is straightforward. Harvest the ciphertext now while storage is cheap and decrypt it later when quantum computers become powerful enough. The Federal Reserve’s own research division published a working paper in 2025 analysing this exact risk, using the Bitcoin network as a case study to show how previously recorded transactions remain vulnerable even after a network migrates to PQC.
The data most at risk is not what you send today. It is the data that needs to stay secret for the next 10 to 20 years.
Think about what falls into that category. Medical records and genomic data do not expire the way passwords do. Classified defence schematics for infrastructure or military systems retain value for decades. Intellectual property, long-term financial contracts and diplomatic communications all carry long shelf lives. Any organisation that retains sensitive data under compliance obligations is, right now, sitting on a vault that adversaries are betting will become openable within a decade.
The migration problem makes this worse. Cryptographic transitions are not a software update you push overnight. NIST estimates that fully integrating new cryptographic standards into global information systems could take ten or more years. Organisations that wait until a capable quantum computer actually exists will already be too late to protect the data they hold today.
Enter Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)
This is exactly where Post-Quantum Cryptography comes in and why it is one of the most critical pieces of the quantum puzzle.
PQC is a new generation of encryption algorithms designed to resist quantum attacks. Unlike quantum key distribution, which requires quantum hardware, PQC runs on classical computers. That means it can be deployed right now, before quantum computers become powerful enough to pose a real threat.
The idea behind it is this: instead of relying on problems like integer factorisation that quantum computers excel at, PQC is built on mathematical problems that are hard for both classical and quantum machines. The leading approach is lattice-based cryptography, which relies on the difficulty of solving certain geometric problems in very high dimensions.
In August 2024, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalised its first three PQC standards after an eight-year global evaluation process:
- ML-KEM (formerly CRYSTALS-Kyber) for general encryption
- ML-DSA (formerly CRYSTALS-Dilithium) for digital signatures
- SLH-DSA (formerly SPHINCS+) as a hash-based backup for digital signatures
This was a global milestone. The message from NIST was clear: the migration to quantum-safe encryption needs to start now.
How MIMOS Connects the Dots
MIMOS is not just thinking about the power of quantum. They are deeply aware of the defensive requirement too.
Their agenda explicitly prioritises enhancing communication security as a near-term goal. The Quantum Intelligence Centre will focus on quantum cryptography as one of its core pillars. Their stated mission is to enhance the security and reliability of Malaysia’s digital infrastructure and ensure national sovereignty in the digital economy.
That is a direct acknowledgement that quantum-safe security including PQC is not optional. It is foundational.
Think of it as four layers stacked on top of each other.
Quantum Computing is the engine: raw processing power that operates exponentially faster than classical machines.
Quantum AI is the brain: intelligence that runs on top of that engine, capable of solving problems that classical AI cannot touch.
Quantum Intelligence is MIMOS’s national strategy: the effort to unify all of these threads under one direction so Malaysia moves as one instead of in fragments.
Post-Quantum Cryptography is the shield: the layer that protects everything else, ensuring that the same power driving progress cannot be turned against the systems we depend on.
Malaysia vs. The World: Are We Ready?
Malaysia is entering a race where others have a significant head start:
- China: approximately USD 15.3 billion committed in public quantum investments (per McKinsey data cited by CSIS)
- EU: EUR 1 billion Quantum Flagship initiative over 10 years
- Singapore: approximately SGD 300 million through its National Quantum Strategy
Malaysia’s bet is not to outspend these players. It is to integrate and move fast, combining quantum with cybersecurity and semiconductors in a way that plays to the country’s strengths: nimble policy-making, strategic location and growing tech infrastructure.
The partnership with SDT Inc. of South Korea to build Malaysia’s “Quantum Valley” reflects that approach in action, attracting global expertise while building local capability. Construction of the Quantum Intelligence Centre is underway with completion expected in 2026.
What This Means for Tech Professionals
If you work in software, security, infrastructure or data, the quantum transition is not a distant concern. It is a present one. Here are the things worth acting on:
Start learning PQC. NIST’s finalised standards (ML-KEM, ML-DSA and SLH-DSA) are real and deployable today. Google, Apple, Signal and Cloudflare have already begun rolling them out.
Audit your cryptographic dependencies. Any system using RSA or ECC needs a migration roadmap. Not in 10 years. Now.
Watch Malaysia’s National Quantum Policy 2026–2035. It will shape procurement, compliance and industry partnerships across ASEAN.
Quantum talent is scarce. Engineers who understand both quantum mechanics and systems architecture will be among the most sought-after professionals of the next decade.
Final Thought
Malaysia’s quantum push through MIMOS and the Quantum Intelligence Centre is a signal that the country is serious about owning its place in the next technological era. Not just as a consumer of foreign innovation but as a regional architect of it.
Sitting right at the heart of that ambition is the urgent need to protect everything we have already built through encryption that can survive the quantum storm.
PQC is not just a niche cryptography topic. It is national infrastructure. Malaysia is starting to treat it that way.
Sources: MIMOS Berhad, The Edge Malaysia, Quantum Computing Report, NIST (nist.gov), CSIS Perspectives on Innovation, Qureca Quantum Initiatives Worldwide 2025, Federal Reserve FEDS Working Paper 2025–093, Global Risk Institute Quantum Threat Timeline
Tags: #QuantumComputing #Cybersecurity #PostQuantumCryptography #Malaysia #MIMOS #DeepTech