The $240 Billion Race to Rebuild Cybersecurity Before Quantum Arrives

Issued on behalf of Quantum Secure Encryption Corp.

Equity-Insider.com News Commentary

VANCOUVER, BC, April 17, 2026 /CNW/ -- The old playbook is dead. Gartner now forecasts global cybersecurity spending will hit $240 billion in 2026, up 12.5% from last year, as enterprises scramble to rebuild their defenses against two converging threats: ransomware attacks that now cost an average of $5.08 million per breach, and AI powered intrusions that compress attacker breakout times to under 30 minutes^[1]. NIST's latest post-quantum migration guidance is telling organizations to start their cryptographic overhauls now, not later, because adversaries are already harvesting encrypted data today with plans to crack it once quantum computing matures^[2]. That urgency is creating a pivotal window for companies built around cryptographic agility and autonomous threat detection: Quantum Secure Encryption Corp. (CSE:QSE) (OTCQB:QSEGF) (FSE: VN8), Commvault (NASDAQ:CVLT), NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP), Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS), and F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV).

The capital flows tell the story. IDC projects global security spending will exceed $308 billion in 2026, with unified AI driven platforms and zero trust architectures absorbing the largest share of new enterprise budgets^[3]. Fresh research from Gigamon confirms the shift: 87% of organizations now rank "harvest now, decrypt later" quantum attacks as a top concern, validating cryptographic resilience and continuous verification as the primary value drivers for this cycle^[4].

Quantum Secure Encryption (CSE:QSE) (OTCQB:QSEGF) (FSE: VN8) has launched QPA v2, an enterprise platform built to do something most organizations have been putting off: figure out exactly where their encryption is vulnerable to quantum computing, and lay out a step-by-step plan to fix it before it matters.

The Vancouver-based company designed QPA v2 around the idea that most large organizations already know quantum computing poses a threat to current encryption. What they lack is a practical way to act on it. The platform delivers a planning wizard covering governance, budgets, and migration timelines, AI-enhanced modules that score an organization's cryptographic readiness, and inventory tools that scan software, hardware, and encryption components to surface what needs upgrading. A centralized executive dashboard gives leadership a real-time view of risk exposure and migration progress across the entire organization. QSE says the platform is already live and in use with both existing and prospective clients.

"Organizations are now moving from understanding quantum risk to actively planning for it," said Ted Carefoot, CEO of QSE. "QPA v2 is designed to support that transition by providing a structured, repeatable framework that enables enterprises and public-sector organizations to assess their current state, prioritize risk, and plan their migration toward post-quantum cryptographic standards."

The company's public-sector push is already producing results. QSE recently landed its first municipal government pilot through its membership in MISA (Municipal Information Systems Association), a national network connecting Canadian municipalities with new technology. That pilot municipality is now using QPA to identify which systems depend on encryption that quantum computers could eventually crack, and to begin planning replacements. QSE says conversations with additional municipalities are already underway.

The commercial footprint has grown just as quickly. Since November 2025, QSE has expanded from four to thirteen operational markets worldwide, with eleven value-added distributors active and two more partnerships expected to close shortly. The company also joined CADSI (Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries), creating new pathways into Canadian defence and public-sector procurement.

QPA v2 integrates with QSE's broader product suite, including its quantum-resilient key infrastructure, QAuth identity platform, and encrypted storage solutions. QSE is a Canadian post-quantum security company helping organizations protect sensitive data from the more powerful cyberattacks quantum computing is expected to enable, serving commercial, enterprise, and government clients ahead of a generational shift in encryption.

CONTINUED… Read this and more on QSE at: https://equity-insider.com/2025/03/18/is-scope-technologies-corp-cse-scpe-otcqb-scpcf-the-next-big-player-in-quantum-cybersecurity/

Other industry developments and happenings in the market include:

Commvault (NASDAQ:CVLT) and NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) announced a strategic alliance to deliver an integrated enterprise data protection and cyber resilience solution spanning on-premises and cloud environments. The unified platform combines Commvault's recovery and protection capabilities with NetApp's AI-driven ransomware detection to give organizations confidence that data remains available, immutable, and recoverable against an expanding threat landscape.

"The first step in building cyber resilience in your organization is the ability to recover with trust and speed," said Pranay Ahlawat, Chief Technology and AI Officer at Commvault. "Together Commvault and NetApp detect potential attacks close to the data and make trusted recovery decisions to quickly, cleanly, and completely restore data at scale. Our joint customers will be able to innovate with confidence that their data and their business can be resilient in the face of disruption."

"This alliance reinforces NetApp and Commvault's leadership in the rapidly evolving cyber resilience and data protection market," said Dallas Olson, Chief Commercial Officer at NetApp. "Together we're helping customers make their infrastructure intelligent and secure so they have the confidence that their data is always available, protected, and recoverable—no matter where it lives—while expanding our joint go-to-market reach and driving growth in a high-demand segment."

The alliance's closed-loop recovery architecture integrates NetApp's AI-powered Autonomous Ransomware Protection on primary storage with Commvault's threat-aware backup and Synthetic Recovery workflows, targeting shorter rollback windows and faster return to operations. Future joint innovation will incorporate NetApp ONTAP restore technology to further reduce data loss and improve recovery speed across hybrid environments.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS) has significantly expanded its data sovereignty capabilities across its Zero Trust Exchange cloud security platform, introducing new regional deployments including a forthcoming presence in Canada. The company operates 160+ data centers globally and has built a decentralized architecture with fully isolated control, data, and logging planes, ensuring sensitive data never leaves its required jurisdiction.

"The true measure of a security cloud isn't just global performance, but its ability to adapt to local realities," said Misha Kuperman, Chief Reliability Officer at Zscaler. "Effective data sovereignty requires customers to have verified authority over their data residency, telemetry and control data plane data. By separating control, data, and logging planes with a decentralized architecture, Zscaler enables customers to align with strict local sovereignty requirements while maintaining the resilience and availability needed for global business continuity."

New capabilities include in-region SSL inspection and malware analysis, certified on-premises flexibility through Private Service Edges, and a "Collect Once, Certify All" compliance framework accelerating validation for GDPR, NIS2, and DoD IL5. Zscaler owns and operates its own cloud infrastructure, eliminating single points of failure and supporting business continuity for major financial institutions and government agencies worldwide.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) has announced a new alliance with Forcepoint to help enterprises secure AI across its full lifecycle, connecting data discovery and classification with runtime protection and continuous assurance. The partnership combines Forcepoint's AI-native Data Security Posture Management capabilities with F5's red teaming and AI guardrails functionality within the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform, giving security teams real-time visibility into data vulnerabilities, runtime controls over AI interactions, and continuous monitoring for misuse or abnormal behavior.

"Enterprises are moving AI initiatives from experimentation to production faster than most security programs can adapt," said John Maddison, Chief Marketing Officer of F5. "By combining Forcepoint's deep data intelligence and contextual awareness with F5's advanced application security and runtime protections, organizations eliminate operational security gaps with unmatched confidence and control in their AI operations."

The combined solution addresses a growing gap in enterprise security architecture where data governance, application security, and runtime protections have historically operated in silos. F5 secures AI systems at runtime by enforcing policies across APIs, gateways, applications, and AI agents, defending against prompt abuse, data exfiltration, and emerging threats as organizations scale AI deployment across copilots, assistants, and automated workflows.

FURTHER READING: https://equity-insider.com/2025/03/18/is-scope-technologies-corp-cse-scpe-otcqb-scpcf-the-next-big-player-in-quantum-cybersecurity/

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SOURCES:

1. https://www.elisity.com/blog/2026-cybersecurity-budget-complete-enterprise-planning-guide 
2. https://pages.nist.gov/nccoe-migration-post-quantum-cryptography/FAQ/ 
3. https://www.biztechreports.com/news-archive/2026/3/20/global-security-spend-to-exceed-300-billion-in-2026-as-the-adoption-of-ai-driven-security-platforms-gains-momentum-idc-march-23-2026 
4. https://itwire.com/guest-articles/guest-research/quantum-threats-move-from-theory-to-reality-as-%E2%80%98harvest-now,-decrypt-later%E2%80%99-attacks-rise.html

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