Introduction
Water infrastructure requires high availability and often operates industrial control systems with long replacement cycles. QSD research focuses on practical, low-disruption ways to identify cryptographic dependencies, protect remote access and modernise trust services without destabilising operational technology.
2026 Research Context
Water infrastructure illustrates the operational constraints of quantum transition: remote sites, long-lived PLCs and control equipment, vendor-specific protocols, limited maintenance windows and strict availability requirements. European policy now adds a clear direction of travel for critical infrastructure, making early dependency discovery especially important. QSD research focuses on where cryptographic controls can be modernised first—remote access, gateways, management channels, device identities and IT/OT boundary services—while preserving deterministic operations and avoiding unsafe change in core process control.
Research Focus
- SCADA/ICS cryptographic dependency discovery
- Remote maintenance and operator-access security
- Gateway and field-device identity
- Legacy protocol protection and compensating controls
- Lifecycle-based migration sequencing
Expected Research Outputs
- Utility dependency maps
- OT transition patterns
- Compensating-control playbooks
- Test and rollback scenarios
- Q-TR water-sector readiness indicators
Standards & Sector Context
NIS2 · critical-infrastructure context · IEC 62443 concepts · NIST PQC standards
Collaboration Model
QSD seeks applied partnerships with water utilities, industrial-control vendors, municipal operators and OT-security laboratories. The most valuable projects combine real asset and supplier constraints with safe test environments for remote access, telemetry, device identity and staged cryptographic transition.