For years, enterprise IT and security leaders have viewed the quantum computing threat through a long-term lens — a theoretical risk slated for the next decade. That timeline has officially collapsed. Fast-maturing quantum computers are quickly gaining the capacity to crack the foundational encryption algorithms that now protect our global digital systems and infrastructure, including RSA, AES, ECC, and TLS.

For government agencies, critical infrastructure operators, enterprises, and hybrid cloud providers, the threat is no longer "coming soon." It’s already here. Q Day might not be here just yet. But the shadow it casts over digital infrastructure and cybersecurity has gone from “distant tomorrow” to “today.”

The twin forces accelerating quantum risk

The most immediate operational danger comes in the form of "harvest now, decrypt later" (HNDL) attacks. Nation-state adversaries and advanced threat groups are actively intercepting and exfiltrating massive volumes of encrypted, highly sensitive data today. While they can’t break the encryption with classical computers, they’re systematically hoarding this data until a cryptographically relevant quantum computer becomes available. Among security and IT leaders, HNDL is now the number one quantum concern for more than 60% of respondents to a recent survey by Thales.

Compounding the urgency is the staggering acceleration of quantum computing processing capabilities. A trio of papers published between 2025 and 2026 made waves in the cybersecurity world by drastically altering the timelines for quantum code-breaking. Since 2019, the number of qubits required to crack RSA encryption algorithms has plummeted from 20 million to under 100,000, while the computational time required to execute these algorithms has shrunk from weeks to mere minutes.

Aware of the danger, yet unprepared to face it

From enterprise tech to critical infrastructure to federal and state agencies, quantum vulnerabilities are increasingly top of mind across sectors. Data protection is always a priority, but the stakes are exponentially higher when managing national security intelligence, energy infrastructure, and tactical AI inference.

Yet, despite federal calls to adopt post-quantum cryptography (PQC), implementation across these complex, highly interconnected environments continues to lag dangerously behind the threat. While 62% of tech and cybersecurity professionals worry that quantum computing will shatter today’s encryption, just 5% report their organizations actually have a defined quantum strategy. In fact, 91% of cybersecurity professionals across the US and Europe admit they still have no PQC roadmap in place.

To make matters worse, for the few organizations actively attempting to modernize their encryption, nearly 90% say they lack the internal talent and resources required to implement the right solution.

It’s no surprise that talk of Q Day has morphed into headlines about a coming “Quantum Apocalypse.”

Navigating post-quantum standards

Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) comprises an emerging set of highly advanced cryptographic methods designed to stay mathematically impenetrable against both classical brute-force attacks and future quantum computers. It serves as the foundational algorithmic core of the even broader field of quantum-resistant encryption (QRE), a holistic defensive posture that incorporates additional network-level techniques like quantum key distribution.

Where traditional encryption (like RSA) relies on math that quantum computers will easily dismantle, PQC pivots to alternative, exponentially more complex mathematical structures — such as lattices, error-correcting codes, and hash functions — that remain hard for both classical supercomputers and quantum systems alike to solve.

The US federal government is taking steps to clarify a path toward quantum resilience. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has finalized three PQC standards to date, including FIPS 203 (aka ML-KEM), FIPS 204 (aka ML-DSA), and FIPS 205 (aka SLH-DSA) — and a fourth encryption algorithm (FALCON or FN-DSA) is also under consideration. All four of these standards were developed by researchers who were either already with or have since joined IBM. (Available is an IBM Platinum Partner.)

Imminent risk to governments and critical enterprises

Data with multi-decade value is an immediate target. Intelligence authorities assume that high-stakes assets across government, healthcare, finance, and enterprise tech — from classified secrets and medical records to financial frameworks, infrastructure patents, and AI models — are already being intercepted and stored for future decryption. These interceptions constitute unrecoverable loss. Once encrypted data leaves a network, an organization cannot "un-harvest" or take it back from the attacker. 

Moreover, the physical architecture of compute is fundamentally shifting. As the industry moves away from the interconnection bottlenecks of massive hyperscaler hubs, AI inference is rapidly decentralizing to sovereign, ultra-low-latency micro edge data centers. But as data generation and machine-speed decision-making push outward to this operational edge, the attack surface expands significantly. Risk vectors multiply exponentially across a sprawling, volatile mesh of vulnerable endpoints, distributed sensors, and continuous networking streams, exposing critical infrastructure to unprecedented threat levels.

In this highly distributed environment, traditional perimeter defenses inevitably fail. Unencrypted or legacy-encrypted transport layers weaving between these scattered AI edge nodes, centralized GPU clusters, and cloud storage backends have become prime, highly lucrative targets for automated data exfiltration and sophisticated AI model poisoning. 

PQC needs to be done right, not as a Band-Aid

As the stakes for AI data security reach critical mass, the transition to post-quantum cryptography must be foundational. Slapping a quantum-resistant algorithm onto a legacy hub-and-spoke VPN is the definition of a Band-Aid. It provides a dangerous illusion of safety; a heavily encrypted tunnel is functionally useless if the user, edge device, or micro data center at the tunnel’s terminus is already compromised by a conventional breach.

Similarly, migrating to “just any” alternative neocloud edge infrastructure without a baked-in, zero-trust security philosophy leaves AI inference and data dangerously exposed. In the modern distributed computing landscape, ultra-low-latency edge compute and military-grade cybersecurity must go hand-in-glove from the silicon up.

How Available integrates PQC

All of this is exactly why Available Infrastructure integrates quantum-resilient cryptography natively as part of our SanQtum ZT managed services solution stack, powered by our strategic partner ZeroTier. We do not just overlay encryption; we weave it directly into the network fabric to protect high-value data and AI workloads comprehensively, both at rest and in transit.

This unified approach delivers on five critical fronts:

• NIST and CNSA 2.0 alignment via crypto-agility: In addition to adhering to leading government cryptographic standards, our architecture is built for crypto-agility. Rather than hardwiring algorithms into hardware components that risk rapid obsolescence, our software-defined PQC allows cryptographic protocols to be seamlessly updated as NIST frameworks evolve and new threat vectors emerge.

• Uncompromising zero trust networking architecture: PQC is only effective if the data it protects maintains absolute integrity and fidelity. We employ strict least-privilege access and continuous identity verification to ensure that only legitimate actors and pristine data enter the ecosystem.
  
• Ultra-low-latency P2P performance for AI workloads: Historically, the computational heft of larger PQC payloads would bottleneck network performance. We bypass this entirely. By leveraging direct peer-to-peer (P2P) mesh routing, advanced hardware acceleration, and highly efficient CPU/memory utilization, SanQtum ZT accommodates massive cryptographic overhead without sacrificing the ultra-low-latency performance required for real-time edge AI inference.
  
• Essential data-in-transit and at-rest protection: Quantum-ready defense must be holistic, leaving no gaps in the continuum. Our infrastructure extends uncompromising protection across the entire data lifecycle — securing data in transit across complex mesh networks, while simultaneously locking down distributed databases, storage layers, and critical AI assets at rest.
  
• Frictionless managed service delivery: Achieving national security-grade encryption shouldn't require draining your enterprise's specialized IT talent. By delivering SanQtum ZT as a comprehensive managed service, we eliminate internal staffing constraints that frequently delay critical infrastructure upgrades, ensuring an accelerated, seamless path to definitive quantum readiness.

The quantum-era edge imperative

The convergence of sovereign neocloud compute and distributed edge AI unlocks unprecedented operational autonomy, but it also paints a massive, high-value target on your most critical infrastructure. Waiting for the quantum threat to fully materialize before securing these decentralized networks is a catastrophic gamble. True operational resilience requires abandoning legacy perimeters for proactive, zero-trust architecture engineered specifically for tomorrow’s machine-speed threat landscape.

Do not leave your enterprise's most sensitive AI inference models and data streams exposed at the vulnerable edge.

Contact the Available team today to deploy the SanQtum ZT managed stack and future-proof your infrastructure against tomorrow’s automated threats.

For years, operational technology (OT) — the hardware and software controlling everything from power grids and water facilities to defense logistics — relied on "air-gapping" for protection. If a system wasn't connected to the broader Internet, it was largely considered safe.

Today, that isolation is entirely gone. As distributed data infrastructure and edge AI capabilities rapidly integrate into our critical systems, they bring immense operational value — alongside a highly sophisticated, fast-evolving threat landscape.

Recognizing that legacy defenses are entirely outmatched by machine-speed cyber warfare and upcoming quantum capabilities, the federal government has initiated a sweeping, multi-layered regulatory overhaul.

New federal mandates from H1 2026

For enterprise vendors and critical infrastructure operators, navigating this shift requires looking beyond individual compliance checklists and understanding how a series of independent federal actions are converging on the edge:

• Zero trust directives. CISA’s April 2026 joint guidance explicitly tackles how vendors and operators must architect security for connected OT systems, focusing heavily on shifting away from vulnerable, flat-network architectures.
• Supply chain mandates. The Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-26-05 requires agencies to take a more risk-based approach to software and hardware security, tailoring assurance requirements to mission risk rather than relying on a single compliance mechanism. Technology providers should therefore be prepared to meet agency-specific requirements, such as secure-development attestations, software bills of materials, contractual security commitments, and other evidence proportional to the risk of the technology and mission.
• Post-quantum timelines. On June 22, 2026, the White House signed Executive Order 14412 ("Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks",) establishing hard deadlines forcing federal ecosystems and contractors to transition to post-quantum cryptography to thwart state-sponsored data interception.
• Autonomous threat realities. Leading into June 2026 hearings, official disclosures revealed that frontier AI models like Mythos can autonomously map vulnerabilities across classified infrastructure in mere hours, signaling a new wave of machine-speed edge threats.
  

For critical infrastructure operators and the technology vendors who support them, these diverse federal actions and advanced threat landscapes must now be addressed simultaneously.

The threat is real — and growing

Attackers have already demonstrated they know how to exploit the growing vulnerability of connected OT. Several forms of malware have been specifically engineered to target OT systems and manipulate or shut down the physical processes they control. 

Their potential entry points include: 

• Credential theft across shared IT/OT domains for lateral movement into the OT network
• Compromised third-party vendor software updates
• Insecure / unrestricted remote access
• Living off the land (LOTL) techniques in IT environments to pre-position OT attacks

IBM's X-Force 2026 Threat Intelligence Index found supply chain and third-party breaches quadrupled over five years. This trend hits OT environments particularly hard given their reliance on vendor access and long software dependency chains.

For critical infrastructure and public networks, the exposure is twofold: A successful attack can compromise the OT system itself, disrupting the physical processes it controls. Simultaneously, the sensitive corporate and government data flowing through these networks is equally at risk, carrying serious operational and national security implications.

Operationalizing security at the edge

Responding to this shifting risk and regulatory environment requires moving past legacy, perimeter-based defenses. To satisfy converging federal mandates while building a resilient defense against automated vulnerability discovery, operators must embed a proactive defense framework directly into localized edge and data architectures.

• Zero trust frameworks isolate critical systems. Eliminating implicit trust across connected infrastructure requires continuous, context-aware verification of every user, device, and network transaction.
  
  For operational technology, pushing this identity-bound access to the physical edge puts CISA's core guidelines into practice, ensuring a compromised IT account cannot pivot into a utility grid.
  
• Post-quantum protocols protect edge pipelines. Upgrading to quantum-resistant encryption standards secures critical data transmissions against future machine-scale decryption tactics.
  
  For public sector vendors, deploying these NIST-approved algorithms right where edge data is generated satisfies the compressed compliance timelines mandated by Executive Order 14412.
  
• Edge-native AI counters autonomous targeting. Machine-speed vulnerability discovery, as seen with frontier models like Mythos, has entirely compressed traditional human-scale defensive windows.
  
  Deploying low-latency AI inference directly onto edge hardware provides the active defense necessary to spot behavioral anomalies and isolate compromised network segments before automated exploits can strike.
  
• Sovereign cloud environments ensure compliance. Navigating strict federal chain-of-custody rules requires a clean structural separation of sensitive data from public networks.
  
  For contractors adhering to CMMC frameworks, utilizing dedicated sovereign edge platforms continuously captures immutable transaction logs to provide automated, audit-ready evidence.

Pushing security to the frontier

The closing window on infrastructure defense means compliance is no longer a static checklist, but a race against machine-speed capabilities and upcoming quantum risks. Relying on centralized clouds or perimeter-based firewalls leaves decentralized edge assets exposed to the very vulnerabilities that automated systems can now exploit in a matter of hours.

Federal policy is shifting rapidly to meet this reality. At the modern edge, organizations are either actively hardening their decentralized nodes — or simply waiting for them to be mapped.

To learn more about deploying next-generation security and compliance architectures at the physical edge, contact our team today.

Available’s SanQtum technology stack — including quantum-resilient, zero trust cybersecurity and sovereign, high-performance neocloud infrastructure — will support EarthSpark’s open-source software, ThunderCloud, and smart metering hardware, SparkMeter.

Tysons Corner, Va. and Washington, D.C. — 1 September 2026 — Cybersecure AI and HPC infrastructure company Available Infrastructure (Available) today announced a strategic partnership with nonprofit EarthSpark International (EarthSpark). EarthSpark expands energy access and builds local energy prosperity around the world through community-scale solar-plus-storage minigrids in rural, off-grid, and under-grid regions. The organization’s SparkMeter smart metering system now supports nearly 1 million people in 30 countries spanning Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. Under the initiative, Available’s sovereign, secure SanQtum neocloud platform will process, store, and protect the critical data driving these SparkMeter-based minigrids.

The partnership is the latest evolution of EarthSpark’s minigrid enhancements. Earlier this year, EarthSpark open-sourced ThunderCloud 2.0, the software intelligence that powers its smart meters and minigrids. As part of the partnership, EarthSpark is now migrating SparkMeter and ThunderCloud data and compute off traditional public cloud infrastructure and onto Available’s sovereign, zero trust, and quantum-resilient SanQtum neocloud as its new primary compute environment.

EarthSpark’s migration to SanQtum will strengthen rural minigrids and benefit customers and other stakeholders in three key ways: 1) superior data privacy for grid operators and their customers), 2) enhanced minigrid service continuity and reliability thanks to SanQtum’s low-latency, cybersecure high-performance compute environment, and 3) data integrity and confidence for grid operators’ reporting for government, investors, and philanthropic supporters.

“This is an exciting step for EarthSpark and every grid operator who depends upon SparkMeter meters around the world,” said Allison Archambault, President of EarthSpark International. “Thanks to this partnership with Available Infrastructure, we are bringing truly cutting-edge tech to the energy access sector, so that remote minigrids are running on the same ultra-modern infrastructure as the world’s leading government agencies and enterprise companies.”

“We are proud and honored to partner with EarthSpark on this important work. In today’s era, energy and other modern infrastructure is synonymous with connectivity, data storage and compute for operations and AI inference, and cyber concerns,” added Dan Gregory, CEO of Available. “Our company was originally founded with an early focus on the energy sector, including minigrids, virtual power plants, and battery energy storage systems. This collaboration with EarthSpark is both a return to our energy-sector roots and a further building of that legacy to bring SanQtum to communities that depend on reliable, clean energy minigrids for their energy access.”

To learn more about EarthSpark and Available’s SanQtum collaboration, or to connect with the Available team, send a message here.

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About Available Infrastructure
Based in Northern Virginia along the Washington, DC, beltway, Available Infrastructure offers SanQtum: a secure, sovereign environment for running mission critical applications, deploying AI inference, and storing sensitive data. SanQtum is offered as an integrated, managed service that conveniently bundles three crucial components: a cybersecure zero trust network overlay, high-performance neocloud compute at urban and frontier micro edge sites, and AI inference governance and orchestration. Available Infrastructure is an IBM Platinum Partner.

For more information, visit www.availableinfrastructure.com. 

About EarthSpark International
EarthSpark International is a non-profit that builds resilient, local energy systems and businesses that empower communities around the world. Since 2008, EarthSpark has pioneered smart, local solar electricity systems, innovative electric cooking, and participatory energy business models that de-risk minigrid development worldwide. With its SparkMeter smart metering solutions and its open-source ThunderCloud 2.0 operating system, EarthSpark’s technology and operating models support energy access, billing, and grid analytics for 1 million people across 30 countries.

Learn more at www.earthsparkinternational.org.

Media Contact
Logan Varsano, Inflection Point Agency for Available
logan@inflectionpointagency.com

The electricity system is more distributed and Internet-connected than ever — and that changes everything about securing it

Most of the operational technology running America’s grid has fallen outside the strongest tiers of federal cybersecurity coverage. And regulators are taking note. In the past few months, federal agencies have made a series of big moves to shore up cybersecurity across America's power grid. 

In March, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted unanimously to issue two final rules and approve an updated reliability standard to modernize cybersecurity protections for the bulk power system (BPS). 

The BPS is the backbone of the nation's electricity supply: the high-voltage transmission lines and large-scale power plants that move electricity across regions and power daily life. The expanded rules cover secure virtualization, baseline controls for lower-tier grid systems, and tighter definitions of which assets fall under oversight. 

Meanwhile, also earlier this year, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released its new Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Roadmap review. It similarly identified the urgency to act.

The NERC-CIP standards focus on the other end of the system: the distribution grid that delivers electricity into cities, businesses, and homes. This includes a fast-growing category of assets called distributed energy resources (DERs): grid-connected devices like rooftop solar, behind-the-meter batteries, smart thermostats, building energy management systems, and EV charging infrastructure.

A cybersecure, reliable grid needs protection at both ends of the system, and it's the distribution end — with its explosion of connected devices — where the risk picture is changing fastest.

Distributed energy, distributed risk

The scale of what's now connected to the grid puts the urgency of federal action into perspective. Nearly 77% of US households had smart electric meters in 2023, up from 60% just five years prior, and millions of homes and businesses are adding rooftop solar, batteries, and EVs every year. And research projects the US will add another 217 gigawatts of DER capacity between 2024 and 2028 — nearly equal to the output of all US coal-fired power plants combined. 

Such explosive growth creates two distinct but related cybersecurity risks. The first is DERs as an entry (attack) vector. More endpoints on the grid means more potential points of compromise, meaning adversaries no longer need to attack a high-value target directly to inflict damage. A compromised smart meter or building energy management system can serve as a foothold, allowing attackers to move laterally through connected systems, escalate privileges, and work their way toward higher-value infrastructure. And, this risk isn't limited to clean energy technologies: any internet-connected asset — natural gas plant control systems, pipelines, transmission infrastructure — carries the same exposure.

The second risk is DERs as a primary target. As virtual power plants (VPPs) and large DER fleets take on greater roles in demand response aggregation and grid balancing, the grid itself increasingly depends on the services they deliver — generation from rooftop solar and batteries, load shifting, peak shaving. If adversaries knock whole fleets of DERs offline, it can disrupt critical services like heating, cooling, and backup power. At scale, such disruption can ripple into broader grid instability across entire communities, from darkening homes during extreme weather and grounding EV fleets, to compromising hospital power and water treatment systems. 

These aren’t hypothetical concerns. Nation-state actors have repeatedly identified energy infrastructure as a target, with advanced threat actors known to target grid infrastructure just to get inside and see how things work, mapping systems and dependencies to pre-position for future attacks. 

A multi-layer defense for critical infrastructure

Defending the grid requires a multi-layer security framework that matches the scale and sophistication of today’s fast-evolving threat.

• Zero trust is the foundation. Built on the principle that no user, device, or system is trusted by default, a zero trust approach requires every connection to be continuously verified, every access request validated, and every device treated as a potential threat until proven otherwise. For grid-connected operational technology, this means identity-bound access, micro-segmentation, and continuous authentication enforced directly at the operational edge.
  
• Quantum-resilient encryption protects data integrity. Quantum computing is advancing faster than most organizations realize. Post-quantum cryptography replaces encryption standards that quantum computers will eventually break, securing endpoints, data in transit, and cloud environments against both current and future threats. This next level of protection is increasingly urgent as state-backed hackers are embracing "harvest now, decrypt later" methods in anticipation of Q Day.
  
• AI-assisted monitoring detects threats in real time. AI-powered threat detection can identify anomalies across distributed infrastructure in real time, proactively flagging threats before they escalate. It can also guard against AI poisoning and shadow AI — whether adversaries corrupting the models that monitor critical grid operations, or unsanctioned models introducing unvetted risk from within.

Grid security can’t wait

AI is enabling attackers to identify vulnerabilities and automate attacks at a scale and speed that wasn't possible even a few years ago. The multi-layer framework we've outlined here — zero trust, quantum-resilient encryption, and AI-assisted monitoring — is how grid-connected systems stay ahead of increasingly more sophisticated cyber attacks.

The federal rules covering the bulk power system and distribution grid are in place and the window for action is narrowing. Your DER systems are either part of the solution — or part of the attack surface.

SanQtum merges national security-grade zero trust protection with real-time edge computing as infrastructure gets more distributed, strengthening organizational protection and grid resilience alike. Contact us to learn more.

A clear and present threat is stalking your enterprise: Shadow AI, the unauthorized or unapproved use of AI in the workplace.

Enterprises and their employees are racing to adopt AI. But they're largely doing so without proper AI policies and governance structures. That means a rampant rise in shadow AI, and with it, a huge new category of enterprise risk that's already causing problems.

One headline raised an early alarm of the dangers: When ChatGPT went viral in early 2023, some employees at a major electronics company learned the hard way that the gen AI tool doesn’t keep secrets. They’d prompted the AI for assistance by feeding it sensitive corporate data, inadvertently exposing the data to potential use in responses to countless other users. The reputational damage was swift and severe, soon prompting several major financial institutions to ban the use of gen AI. 

Yet even now, few organizations are prepared to face the rising specter of shadow AI. This blog takes a closer look at the cyber risks, including data breach, IP theft, leaking confidential market intelligence, and compromised decision-making and the actions needed to defend your organization.

Highlighting the dangers of shadow AI

In 2006, shadow IT was an employee bringing their own thumb drive to work. By 2016, it was an employee bringing in SaaS tools like Google Drive and Slack, still without organizational oversight. 

Now in 2026, with the explosion of AI, those shadows have gotten much darker, and are more dangerous than ever.

Recent cloud security analysis found that roughly half (47%) of people using generative AI platforms are doing so through personal accounts that their companies aren’t overseeing. The number of incidents of users sending sensitive data to AI apps doubled in 2025. Yet 50% of organizations lack enforceable data protection policies for genAI apps.

That’s a serious gap considering the massive risks that come with unauthorized, unmonitored use of AI in an enterprise setting. Risks include:

1. Compromised decision-making. Ungoverned AI outputs can influence strategy and operations without transparency or validation, bringing bias, errors, or hidden assumptions into critical decisions. In financial services, for instance, inaccurate AI-driven forecasts could affect trading strategies or risk assessments.
   
2. Loss of intellectual property. Sharing proprietary materials or market-sensitive information with external AI tools can lead to IP exposure and competitive leakage. Manufacturing firms or logistics companies, for example, could inadvertently reveal trade secrets or supply chain plans.
   
3. Data exposure and breach risk. Unvetted AI use increases the chance of sensitive data leaving approved environments, including through user prompts or insecure integrations. With it, healthcare organizations risk patient privacy violations, while critical infrastructure operators could expose operational data.

Together these risks can and do affect financial performance, regulatory and contractual compliance, and organizational reputation.

How organizations can defend against shadow AI

AI governance should play a central role in de-risking these threats. But right now, AI adoption is significantly outpacing oversight. 

According to IBM research, 97% of AI-related security breaches involved AI systems that lacked proper access controls, and most breached organizations reported they have no governance policies in place to manage AI or prevent shadow AIt. 

Addressing the risks of ungoverned AI usage requires a multi-layered approach, including:

1. Emphasize collaboration with IT, security teams, and business units to understand AI capabilities and limitations. Well-coordinated teams can identify what AI tools are already in use and what data they interact with to understand who’s using what, where, how, when, and why. 
   
2. Develop an agile governance framework. Understanding the current landscape, you can then define the future of which AI systems may be used, how sensitive information is handled, and what training employees need on ethics and compliance.
   
3. Implement guardrails to ensure employees use only approved tools within defined parameters. These may include policies on external AI use, sandbox testing environments, or firewalls blocking unauthorized platforms.
   
4. Monitor AI usage with network tools, access controls, and audits to help track usage and identify risky or unauthorized activity. 
   
5. Remind people of the risks. Shadow AI evolves constantly, so ongoing communication is key.

Organizations can reduce shadow AI rates with governance, monitoring, and even cultural change. But those steps are only one part of a strong defense. 

Safeguarding your data from shadow AI

In addition to AI governance, zero trust networking can restrict unauthorized access to AI tools, and secure data shared with them. Meanwhile, edge computing and encryption keeps sensitive data on local devices, reducing the risk of external exposure to cloud-based AI.

Traditional approaches won’t cut it in a world of creeping shadow AI. With a proactive defense strategy, your team can bring shadow AI into the light to protect your IP, and your organization as a whole.

Ready to shield your systems from shadow AI? With watsonx as part of SanQtum AI, your organization can leverage watsonx.governance to keep stricter, tighter control of AI models, agents, and overall use.

Featuring Available’s SanQtum solutions stack, the deployment will span 100 major US cities and combine zero trust, quantum-secure networking with edge AI inference capability. Available’s newest strategic partner, Strata Expanse, will leverage the system for the Amphix™ AI Infrastructure Platform.

Tysons Corner, Va. — 16 March 2026 — AI infrastructure and cybersecurity company Available Infrastructure (Available) today announced Project Qestrel, a nationwide fleet of cybersecure, private neocloud edge data centers. The initial phase, to be live by the end of 2026, will span 1,000 individual sites across 100 US cities and more than 30 US states from coast to coast, representing nearly $5 billion in project CapEx at full buildout. 

Each site will feature full-stack edge deployments of Available's trio of SanQtum solutions: zero trust network, high-performance compute (HPC) infrastructure, and AI inference capability. The first sites are already live, with 30 cities targeted to come online by early July thanks to a partnership with wireless infrastructure company Crown Castle. Available’s newest strategic partner, Strata Expanse, will leverage the system for the Amphix AI Infrastructure Platform (Amphix), bringing edge AI, ultra-low-latency speed, strengthened cybersecurity, and expanded compute capacity to its customers. 

As the industry sees data and AI rapidly moving to the edge and hybrid cloud and neocloud architectures growing quickly, Project Qestrel and Available’s SanQtum solutions stack provide critical protections and benefits:

• Sovereignty: The Available fleet’s sovereign, edge-first architecture keeps data local to where it is created and where decisions are made, allowing for greater protection of sensitive data and adherence to data residency requirements.
• Security: A zero trust approach and quantum-resilient encryption protect against emerging cyber threats, including "harvest now, decrypt later” attacks and the nearing threat of Q Day from mature quantum computers.
• Latency: HPC at the edge enables ultra-low-latency AI applications for mission-critical use cases that cannot afford the roundtrip latency of pinging to the traditional cloud and back, such as public safety, power grid management, and smart cities.
• Capacity: Available's air-cooled, power-ready sites can come online in weeks to months, not years. For government agencies, enterprises, and data center operators, Available's urban clusters provide a pathway to scale up additional AI capacity essentially overnight versus the speed-to-market delays many hyperscalers are facing from interconnection queue delays, supply chain constraints, and power constraints.

“We believe this is truly the future of AI inference — a future that will be defined by speed, location, and security,” said Dan Gregory, CEO of Available. “By deploying SanQtum from coast to coast, Project Qestrel is bringing powerful AI inference to the US market when it’s needed, where it’s needed, and all within a zero trust network with quantum-resilient cyber protections."

Each of the 1,000 deployments will be co-located at telecom sites, with immediate access to both fiber and power. The fleet’s neocloud architecture will run up to 48 GPUs per site, bringing AI inference out of distant hyperscaler data centers and right to the edge, close to where decisions need to be made quickly. Many of the sites will be pre-integrated with IBM’s watsonx, providing trusted, enterprise-grade AI for users from day one. (Available is an IBM Platinum Partner.) Other sites will be AI-agnostic, capable of running other AI inference models as needed.

Amphix — founded by real estate investment trust and data center infrastructure developer Strata Expanse, intelligent AI orchestration partner RAVEL, and Available — will leverage the network as part of its nationwide rollout. Available’s upcoming deployment will bring Amphix’s total footprint directly to the edge in US cities most in need of fast, reliable computing power. Every Amphix site will also now benefit from SanQtum’s cybersecurity protections.

“Strata’s model allows users to capture an important array of benefits, from flexibility to security to cost efficiency. By leveraging Available’s system, we’re layering on industry-leading cyber protection while extending our HPC and AI capacity to the edge,” said Ellen Taylor, CRO & Senior Vice President of Origination at Strata Expanse. “While some tasks, like AI training workloads, can and should be housed at our larger ‘home base’ data centers, critical AI inference can now operate exactly where it’s needed with ultra-low latency. We are thrilled about what this new partnership will make possible.”  

The first customer to announce its use of Available’s distributed fleet was Datavault AI, working in partnership with IBM. The company recently announced initial adoption in the New York and Philadelphia corridors, with nationwide rollout to come.

Nathaniel Bradley, CEO of Datavault AI, shared, “The added speed and security that Available’s SanQtum solutions bring to the table are vitally important to our latest offerings — like real-time data scoring, tokenization, and monetization — which we believe have the power to unlock an all new category of value for enterprise users.” 

To learn more about Project Qestrel and Available’s SanQtum solutions, or to connect with the Available team, send a message here.

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About Available Infrastructure
Based in Northern Virginia along the Washington, DC, beltway, Available Infrastructure offers cybersecure zero trust networking, HPC neocloud infrastructure, and enterprise-grade AI — all private, sovereign, and at the edge. This unique combination supports critical infrastructure, sensitive data, and AI models for agencies, enterprises, and institutions.

Available is also the owner-operator of a growing nationwide fleet of AI-powered, quantum-ready, distributed micro data centers with national security-grade cyber protection. We are bringing the next generation of pure edge infrastructure to the market, while enhancing the offerings of hybrid cloud providers and traditional data centers. Available Infrastructure is an IBM Platinum Partner.

For more information, visit www.availableinfrastructure.com. 

About Strata Expanse 
Strata Expanse develops land and delivers the power, cooling, and secure connectivity that enable data center operators to deploy high-performance compute within infrastructure-ready environments at speed and scale. Infrastructure is delivered through the company’s Gray Space as a Service™ subscription model. Structured as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), Strata Expanse focuses on energy-first site selection and integrated infrastructure development. 

Learn more at StrataExpanse.com. 

Media Contact
Nikki Arnone
Inflection Point Agency for Available
nikki@inflectionpointagency.com

Q Day is the moment in time — coming far sooner than later — when quantum computers become sufficiently mature at enough scale to crack the encryption algorithms that protect the majority of our data today. Cybersecurity authorities are warning that migration to quantum-resilient systems must begin now, given how quickly AI is advancing quantum capability. 

By 2030, even today’s most robust encryption systems will be no match for quantum capabilities. This has profound implications for modern life as we know it. The safety of financial institutions and fiat and crypto currencies all face imminent risk. Government secrets, company IP, private health information – all could instantly be exposed. The World Economic Forum noted that “all regulations and laws regarding privacy, data management etc. would be impossible to uphold,” significantly eroding public trust.

Nothing that's encrypted with today's algorithms will be safe from quantum computers. It’s a sobering message that should, rightfully, stoke fear — and motivate action: Now is the time to protect yourself, your systems, and your data with quantum-resilient encryption.  That starts with a baseline understanding of the power of quantum computing. 

What is quantum computing?

Quantum computing (and the QPUs it runs on) are significantly more powerful than the CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs of today's computers and data centers. That's because of how quantum computers work; they take advantage of quantum mechanics, probabilities, and superpositions at the atomic and subatomic level.

Think of this way: traditional computing relies on binary (a coin flip of 1 or 0, or classical bits); quantum computing is like flicking the coin so that it spins on end, with an incredible number of possible positions (qubits). This makes quantum computers especially good at solving certain problems and undertaking certain computations... including cracking encryption.

Until recently, quantum computing has been in the R&D phase. Why? Regardless of their technology — cryogenic superconductors, trapped-ion, or photonic — building large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers is complicated and expensive. That means that only a handful of powerful nation-states (e.g., USA, China), major research universities, and major tech companies (IBM, Google) have been investing in its development. 

But now commercial availability is sprinting ever closer. And with it, Q Day.

What is Q Day?

Q-Day refers to the point when quantum computers become powerful enough to break the encryption systems that safeguard today’s digital world. 

Few sectors would be untouched once those defenses fall. Most secure systems — including banks, communications networks, and especially blockchains — rely on RSA and elliptic-curve encryption, both of which could be unraveled once quantum machines reach sufficient scale. 

Among them, blockchain networks may face the steepest test, since their open, transparent design could make digital assets uniquely vulnerable once quantum decryption becomes possible. Q-Day could then upend the foundation of cryptocurrency security. Because blockchains rely on digital signatures, a powerful quantum computer could theoretically extract private keys from public ones, allowing hackers to seize funds. 

Mati Greenspan, Founder of Quantum Economics, warned that when that day comes, “many blockchains won’t survive,” though he noted that some projects are already adapting for a post-quantum era — a shift he believes will “define the next era of digital ownership.” 

An estimated 25 million Bitcoin addresses currently hold more than $100 in value, and Aixiv’s Quantum report estimates it could take six to twelve months to migrate those funds to quantum-safe wallets, according to research cited in Forbes.

And Q Day is coming sooner than later, with AI now accelerating its progress by helping researchers model and characterize the vast complexity of quantum systems. These AI models — spanning machine learning, deep learning, and transformer-based approaches — can approximate the state of massively complex quantum systems, allowing scientists to bypass the exponential scaling hurdles that have long limited quantum research.

By predicting physical properties like magnetization and entropy, AI tools act as surrogates that speed up testing, verification, and optimization of quantum hardware. This capability is vital for advancing quantum computing applications in encryption, materials discovery, and pharmaceuticals. 

Because AI enables faster characterization and optimization, it shortens the timeline to practical quantum computing, effectively bringing Q-Day closer.

When is Q Day coming?

As recently as 2022, an estimate from experts in the field predicted an average of 15 years until Q day would hit — ie, 2037. Since then the date is pulling closer and closer to the present. 

Expert forecasts on timing vary, but most agree it’s coming sooner than later. A 2025 analysis from PostQuantum projects a machine capable of breaking RSA-2048 by around 2030, give or take two years. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that Y2Q will arrive on or around Jan. 1, 2031. An industry survey shows 61% of security professionals believe current encryption could be compromised within two years, and another 28% expect cracks within three to five years.

In other words, the runway to Q Day has been cut in half. We know this because of the key milestones that have already been hit. As described in Post Quantum analysis, these include:

• A new factoring algorithm developed by Google shrank the qubit count needed to factor RSA-2048.
• Oxford physicists at Oxford achieved a record-breaking low error rate in quantum operations (only 1 error in 6.7 million).
• IBM produced a roadmap promising a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029, years ahead of expectations.

That leaves one milestone yet to reach: cracking RSA-2048.

What’s at risk the moment Q Day hits

Q-Day would mean that most of the world’s existing encryption systems could be broken, rendering most common data security strategies instantly obsolete and threatening the security of the global digital economy. 

Critical systems that depend on RSA security and elliptic-curve cryptography — such as financial transactions, blockchain operations, and secure communications — would be vulnerable to quantum decryption. 

The arrival of quantum computers capable of this feat would undermine trust in digital systems and compromise sensitive data at every level, from individuals to governments, and across critical infrastructure sectors like transportation, food and ag, energy, and government and defense.

Cybersecurity authorities are advising organizations to move swiftly to invest in post-quantum encryption. For example, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre advises migration to quantum-safe systems by 2028, with full adoption by 2035. 

In the USA, a bipartisan bill has been proposed to ensure the federal government prepares for encryption-breaking quantum computers. Meanwhile the NSA has been warning for years about “harvest now, decrypt later” strategies, in which attackers capture encrypted data today with the expectation of decrypting it once quantum computing becomes powerful enough. 

“The world will either suffer unimaginable financial, security, and technological catastrophes that taken together will be an order of magnitude worse than cybercrime, which is estimated to cost the world $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025,” said Steve Morgan, editor-in-chief at Cybercrime Magazine of Q Day. “OR the world will be a much safer place.” 

How SanQtum keeps your data and systems safe from Q Day risks

As AI accelerates quantum development, the timeline for safe reliance on today’s encryption methods is shrinking, creating pressure for early adoption of quantum-resilient standards.

SanQtum delivers that protection with new quantum-safe algorithms. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has released Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) publications for three quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. Two of the standards (ML-KEM and ML-DSA) were developed by IBM Research cryptography researchers in Zurich with external collaborators, and the third (SLH-DSA) was co-developed by a scientist who has since joined IBM Research. 

SanQtum provides zero-trust network architecture with quantum-resilient encryption, offered as a plug-and-play service so customers can scale rapidly. Our NIST-approved quantum-resilient encryption keeps your organization’s information secure — both data in transit and at rest — including against “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks and the dawn of Q Day.

Ready to prepare for Q Day? Let’s discuss how SanQtum can help defend your organization from the fast-approaching threat.

Trusted edge AI now a reality, offered as a fully integrated, fully managed solution

TYSONS CORNER, Va. – December 19, 2025 – Available Infrastructure today announced that its cybersecurity solution, SanQtum AI, is advancing the mission to “make AI available” by protecting IBM's watsonx AI and data platform. IBM will offer this fully integrated Platform as a Service directly to help governments, enterprises, and other partners achieve sovereign AI at the edge, where it’s needed most. SanQtum AI embeds IBM's trusted watsonx stack with Available's zero trust, quantum-resistant edge infrastructure. The result is the most secure and performant AI and data platform on the market — one that gets past power requirements, delivers ultra-low latency, and strengthens connectivity to enable faster decision-making at machine speed. 

As enterprise AI adoption accelerates, keeping models safe and secure from poisoning is non-negotiable. Cyber attack risk already looms large for any and all cyber-physical systems, with the cost of cybercrime projected to nearly triple by 2027. Quantum attacks pose a fast-dawning threat, too, with Q Day on the horizon and “harvest now, decrypt later" attacks already well underway. 

In an environment defined by accelerating threats, the path to unlocking the future of AI runs through a robust edge installation strategy, where cloud and edge inferencing work in concert to enable real-time performance and resilient operations across diverse settings. 

Available Infrastructure engineered SanQtum AI to deliver maximum protection, faster and easier. SanQtum AI delivers a solid, safe, efficient path to an AI-driven enterprise, bundling IBM-trusted solutions to defend against model poisoning, quantum attacks, and other vulnerabilities. IBM’s watsonx.ai and watsonx.governance deliver accurate, defensible AI with built-in auditability; the SanQtum network adds security-grade controls like policy enforcement, access control, continuous monitoring, and tamper-resistant logging, so teams can validate outputs and stand up to adversarial and cyber threats. 

This is defensible AI at its best delivered in a sovereign, secure environment. It supports organizations in building an environment for the long term, while protecting investments in data and IP from nation-state attacks and other threats. With micro-edge data centers delivering decentralized AI and neo cloud architecture, SanQtum AI enables real-time response and reduced data management costs.

SanQtum AI features include:

• OPERATIONAL: get AI compute capacity online now (via on-prem and edge instances) vs. years-long backlogs for hyperscaler data centers
• SPEED: ultra-low latency when milliseconds matter, thanks to data and AI models residing at the edge
• SECURITY: zero trust architecture and quantum-resilient encryption mean AI models, data at rest, and data in transit are secure
• SCALABLE: offered as a service, so agencies and enterprises can easily adopt and scale as OpEx on their balance sheet
• TRUSTED: delivered and warrantied directly by IBM, integrating the full watsonx. governance suite with Available's end-to-end protection for all data, models, system, and users

“Including SanQtum AI in IBM’s native solutions offerings marks a significant milestone in our joint effort to protect the sectors that shape our modern world,” said Daniel Gregory, CEO of Available. “As an IBM embedded Platinum Partner, we are proud to combine the power of our cybersecurity solution with watsonx to help more organizations safeguard their path to an AI-driven enterprise.”

To learn more about SanQtum AI, and to contact the Available team, visit www.availableinfrastructure.com.

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About Available Infrastructure
Based in Northern Virginia along the Washington, DC, beltway, Available Infrastructure combines national security-grade cyber protection and AI-powered, quantum-ready edge computing into an integrated solution for critical infrastructure, sensitive data, and enterprise AI models. In today's and tomorrow's evolving landscape, this unique combination keeps operational technology (OT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS) safer, while delivering a decision-making advantage for agencies, enterprises, and institutions. Available unites distinct business units — Available Networks and Available Power — and builds upon their deep experience in power grids, infrastructure development, zero trust networking, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

To learn more visit www.availableinfrastructure.com.

Media Contact
Nikki Arnone, Inflection Point Agency for Available Infrastructure
719-357-8344
nikki@inflectionpointagency.com

AI adoption is swiftly outpacing security and governance — leaving organizations in high-risk industries like healthcare, energy, industrial, financial, government, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics increasingly exposed to expensive, dangerous, and disruptive data breaches. The US government's Cyber Threat Snapshot from November 2024 shows that cyber attacks on critical infrastructure were up 30% globally last year.

While traditional cyberattacks continue to play out, a concerning new theme is fast emerging: AI as both a tool for attack and a target of those attacks.

According to IBM’s new Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025, 1 in 6 data breaches involve AI-driven attacks, most often phishing or deepfake impersonation attacks. The 2025 report also shows that weak cybersecurity around organizational AI use is actively being exploited. More than 1 out of every 8 attacks are now targeting AI models and apps themselves — a number that’s rising as AI becomes a high-value target.

Five key themes in today’s AI-related data breaches

The 2025 report, conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored and analyzed by IBM, is based on data breaches experienced by 600 organizations globally from March 2024 through February 2025. Here are five key themes revealed in the report:

1. All sectors are at risk. Healthcare, financial, industrial, energy, and technology are all experiencing more breaches — and those breaches are getting costlier.
   
2. Attacks are targeting AI models. As more organizations adopt AI, their AI models are becoming the focus of cyber threats. Security incidents that targeted AI models and applications were varied, but one type clearly claimed the top ranking: supply chain compromise, which includes compromised third-party apps, APIs, and plug-ins. Other prevalent forms of attacks on AI systems include: model inversion, which aims to learn sensitive information about the model itself, such as its weights or training data; model evasion, which manipulates input data to deceive a model into producing a desired output or outcome; prompt injection, which manipulates a model’s behavior by inserting hidden or malicious instructions into its input; and data poisoning, which corrupts a model by tampering with the data it learns from.
   
3. Consequences are mounting. Nearly all organizations suffered operational disruption following a breach. Then there’s the financial and reputational impact. The three biggest attack vectors — phishing, supply chain compromise, and malicious insiders — each come with a cost per breach close to $5 million. Meanwhile, nearly 1 in 5 businesses experienced reputational damage and loss of goodwill due to an AI-related breach.
   
4. 97% of companies that experienced an AI-related incident lack basic AI access controls. The overwhelming majority of organizations have no regulations or policies governing how people use AI across the enterprise. This makes organizational intellectual property (IP) data an easy target, especially in environments with lax access controls, over-permissioned accounts, limited visibility into who can access what, and use of shadow AI by employees.
   
5. Most breaches targeted company IP and customer data. One-third of cyberattacks targeted company IP. More than half targeted customer PII. Moreover, roughly one-third of organizations that experienced an incident reported loss of data integrity due to an incident involving an AI model or app.
   

Why national-security grade protection is more important than ever 

While AI is both a tool hackers are using and a target of their attacks, AI is also a part of defense against those attacks.

As IBM’s recent report found, strategic AI deployment is critical for cyber protection and response — enabling faster identification, containment, and lower breach costs. Using AI and automation across operations like prevention, detection, investigation, and response saved $1.9 million in average breach costs and reduced the breach lifecycle by ~80 days. This represents a 28% decrease in mean time to identify (MTTI) + mean time to contain (MTTC).

But the best cybersecurity approaches go above and beyond AI, using zero trust architecture to prevent breach in the first place, keep AI models secure, and avoid operational disruption. “It’s not just about dollars. It’s downtime, reputation, lost trust,” said Jeff Crume, Senior Engineer, IBM. “And the fact is that many of these breaches are preventable.”

As an IBM Platinum Partner, we know that achieving a secure zero-trust posture is not optional — it’s critical for the implementation of trusted enterprise AI. With our fully pre-integrated Platform-as-a-Service, SanQtum, organizations across the public and private sector can achieve rapid, maximum protection in today’s fast-changing threat landscape. 

Image: Unsplash | Sean Pollock

Tysons Corner, VA — 30 July 2025 — Today, Available Infrastructure (“Available”) announced it has been awarded a United States patent for a cybersecurity solution to protect energy assets and other critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

The solution utilizes a firewall gateway as a secure checkpoint that monitors incoming communications trying to interact with and control energy infrastructure, locking out access if it detects unapproved or malicious attempts.

This helps prevent cyberattacks and ensures the safe, reliable operation of critical infrastructure like distributed energy resources (DERs), electric vehicle (EV) charging, virtual power plants (VPPs), energy management systems, and industrial control equipment.

“This patent represents an important step forward in protecting the technologies that power our modern world, from grid technology to industrial systems,” said Daniel Gregory, CEO of Available. “As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, this firewall gateway technology offers a purpose-built solution to help secure essential infrastructure at every turn.”

To learn more about Available or to contact the team, visit www.availableinfrastructure.com. 

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About Available Infrastructure
Based in Northern Virginia along the Washington, DC, beltway, Available Infrastructure (Available) brings together three cornerstone solutions for operational technology (OT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS): zero trust networking for national security-grade cyber protection, IBM watsonx for enterprise AI at the edge, and battery energy storage systems for clean, resilient power.

In today’s and tomorrow’s evolving landscape, this unique combination keeps critical infrastructure and sensitive data safer, while delivering a decision-making advantage for agencies, enterprises, and institutions. Available is the owner-operator of a fast-growing nationwide fleet of quantum-ready micro edge data centers. It is also the parent company uniting two subsidiary, sister business units — Available Networks and Available Power — and is an IBM Platinum Partner.

The Available family of companies brings together deep experience in power grids, infrastructure development, zero trust networking, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

To learn more visit www.availableinfrastructure.com.

Media Contacts

Nikki Arnone
Inflection Point Agency for Available Infrastructure
nikki@inflectionpointagency.com