Dell brings post-quantum cryptography to firmware root of trust

The changes target what Rick Martinez, a Dell fellow and vice president of client solutions, called “trust now, forge later.” Martinez said stolen encrypted data is only part of the risk. A future quantum computer could forge the signatures that tell a laptop or server its firmware is genuine, allowing attacker-written code to pass the same checks as manufacturer code.

“We think of this in terms of trust now, forge later,” Martinez said. “Instead of kind of attacking that confidentiality of encryption of data, these quantum computers will actually be able to attack the integrity of the actual system that runs everything from the bottom up.”

Dell Pro systems now use a post-quantum algorithm in the embedded controller, which Martinez described as the first part of the system to fetch code at startup. Dell has also moved to quantum-resistant hashing for off-host BIOS checks. Martinez said the verification algorithm baked into a system at purchase should already understand post-quantum cryptography and use stronger resilient algorithms, closing a tamper opportunity for future adversaries that may have quantum computers.

Judy Furlong, senior distinguished engineer at Dell, said storage is harder to secure because cryptography appears at every layer. It runs through hardware and software and into the identity and intrusion-detection tools each array connects to, she said.

“We can’t say we’re done until every piece of the quantum vulnerable cryptography has actually been migrated to something that’s quantum resistant,” Furlong said. “It’s going to occur over multiple releases and actually is heavily involved with our supply chain and the vendors, because we obviously have dependencies on when they’re going to have their particular components available and migrated to the post-quantum algorithms.”

Martinez and Furlong spoke with theCUBE’s Krista Case during an exclusive broadcast by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AI Cybersecurity and Resilience Summit 2026; neither Dell nor other sponsors have editorial control over theCUBE or SiliconANGLE content, according to the disclosure accompanying the interview.