PQC Awareness for Firms That Handle Client Confidential Data
Law firms, accounting firms, and professional services organizations handle data with multi-decade confidentiality requirements. Attorney-client privilege, in particular, creates a harvest-now-decrypt-later exposure that most firms have not assessed. If privileged communications are harvested today and decrypted in 10-15 years, the privilege is breached — with implications for both the firm and its clients.
This course covers PQC awareness and migration planning for professional services firms, including the client advisory obligation: if you advise clients on risk, do you have a duty to advise them on quantum risk?
Who Should Take This Course
Managing partners, CISOs, IT directors, and practice group leaders at law firms, accounting firms, and advisory practices. Also appropriate for legal technology vendors and professional services consultants.
What You Will Learn
This course covers the quantum threat and PQC migration as it applies specifically to your sector, including sector-specific regulatory requirements, unique technical constraints, and practical migration strategies aligned with the PQC Migration Framework sector extensions.
Course Outline
Module 1 — Professional Services Quantum Exposure
Attorney-client privilege and the HNDL threat. Accounting firm data sensitivity. Advisory firm client data protection. Document management system cryptographic dependencies. Email encryption and secure file sharing.
Module 2 — Client Advisory Obligations
The professional liability question: if you advise clients on cybersecurity risk, what is your obligation regarding quantum risk? How to advise clients on PQC migration without overstepping technical competence. Building quantum risk awareness into existing advisory frameworks.
Module 3 — Firm Migration Planning
Prioritizing migration for a professional services firm. Document management and email encryption migration. Client portal and secure collaboration tools. Managing migration with limited IT resources. Vendor dependency for legal technology platforms.
Prerequisites
None. Sector experience is helpful but not required. For a broader PQC foundation, consider starting with Post-Quantum Foundation.
Certificate of Completion
Upon completion, you will receive a Quantum Academy certificate of completion. This is not a professional certification.