Detection, Monitoring, and Response for the Migration
During a PQC migration, the security operations center faces new monitoring challenges. Systems run dual algorithms during transition. Downgrade attacks become a specific threat. The SOC needs to see which systems have migrated and which connections use post-quantum algorithms. It also needs to detect attempts to force a fallback to classical cryptography. This course covers detection, monitoring, and incident response for the migration period and beyond.
Course Outline
Module 1 Monitoring Cryptographic Transition
What the SOC needs to see during migration. Visibility into cryptographic protocol usage across the environment. Distinguishing migrated from unmigrated systems. Monitoring hybrid deployments. Building dashboards for migration status from a security operations perspective.
Module 2 Downgrade Attack Detection
The specific threat of downgrade attacks during transition. How an attacker attempts to force classical-only connections. Detection signatures for downgrade attempts. Distinguishing legitimate fallback from malicious downgrade. SIEM rule design for cryptographic downgrade detection.
Module 3 SIEM Integration and Detection Engineering
Integrating cryptographic monitoring into existing SIEM platforms. Log sources for cryptographic visibility. Detection rules for anomalous cryptographic behavior. Alerting thresholds and tuning to manage false positives during the noisy transition period.
Module 4 Incident Response for Cryptographic Events
Incident playbooks for cryptographic security events. Responding to detected downgrade attacks. Handling suspected cryptographic compromise. The SOC’s role in migration verification. Post-migration monitoring for ongoing cryptographic health.
Prerequisites
A working understanding of PQC fundamentals is recommended. Consider Post-Quantum Foundation or PQCS certification for background.
Certificate of Completion
Upon completion, you receive a Quantum Academy certificate of completion. It is separate from our professional certifications and states your CPE credits, one for each 60 minutes of teaching. CISSP, CISM and CCOA holders can claim them with their certifying body. The credits also count toward renewing a Quantum Academy certification. Our CPE credits page explains how to claim them.
Who this course is for
SOC analysts and leads, detection engineering, and incident response teams who will have to monitor an estate through a cryptographic transition. The migration changes both what the SOC can see and the detection logic itself.
If you are planning the migration itself, take one of the PQC Migration courses instead.
What you’ll be able to do afterward
- Design detection content for PQC environments (downgrade monitoring, hybrid failure detection, unexpected classical fallback)
- Update SIEM rules and correlation logic for post-quantum protocol behavior
- Plan incident response procedures during the dual-stack coexistence period
- Define the handover from PQC migration program to steady-state SOC operations
- Assess SOC team knowledge requirements for post-quantum monitoring
What you leave with
When you finish, we email you the course handbook, a PDF of every slide with notes that explain it in full. We also include a PDF copy of Quantum Ready. The handbook is yours to keep.
Enrollment includes 180 days of access to the online on-demand course. Where that course is not yet published, the 180 days start on the day it is.
Where this course fits
Post-Quantum Foundation or PQCS Specialist Training provides the background for this course. You can take this course without either. The Quantum Threat: Technical Deep Dive covers the underlying cryptanalysis. PQC Migration: Executing the Waves covers the migration work the SOC will be monitoring.
Why we teach this
The course is built on the Applied Quantum PQC Migration Framework. Its author, Marin Ivezic, is one of the practitioners who teach here. The framework is published openly under Creative Commons at pqcframework.org. The people who teach this course run migration programs inside organizations today. The course covers the problems they meet in that work.
About this program
Quantum Academy credentials are private professional credentials issued by Quantum Academy, a trade name of Post-Quantum Institute. They are not government-issued licenses, accredited degrees, or academic credit, and earning one does not guarantee employment, promotion, regulatory approval, or any other specific outcome.
Quantum Academy programs are educational and informational only, and are not legal, compliance, or engineering advice.
