Mapping the Supply Chain: A Faster Path to Organizational Resilience

Episode notes

Most conversations about post-quantum cryptography start with algorithms. Sarah McCarthy starts with people. As Quantum Readiness Program Lead at Citi, Sarah works in the realm of payments, compliance, and cryptographic change inside one of the world's most regulated and interconnected financial institutions. In this episode of Shielded: The Last Line of Cyber Defense , she brings that perspective to bear on what large-scale PQC migration actually looks like in practice. Sarah's background spans research, vendor-side work, and enterprise security, giving her a view across the full cryptographic supply chain. That experience shapes how she thinks about readiness. At Citi, the quantum readiness program began in 2022, predating much of the current regulatory urgency. What started with foundational questions about data sensitivity and retention has expanded into a formal vendor survey, internal education efforts, and a growing set of no-regret technical actions already underway. One of the clearest themes from the conversation is the gap between how organizations think about PQC migration and what it actually demands. The instinct is to frame it as an algorithm upgrade.