Microsoft Corp. is moving post-quantum cryptography testing beyond individual algorithms and into the certificate authorities that underpin trusted communications. The company's Trusted Root Program is running a pilot for post-quantum cryptography in Transport Layer Security, conducted outside production and public trust scenarios. DigiCert Inc. is among seven certificate authorities taking part, according to Karina Sirota Goodley, a senior security product manager at Microsoft.
Goodley described the effort during a conversation with DigiCert chief trust officer Lakshmi Hanspal at DigiCert's World Quantum Readiness Day. The discussion was broadcast by theCUBE, the livestreaming studio operated by SiliconANGLE Media, which published the interview on Sept. 17, 2026. The two talked about Microsoft's certificate authority testing and about how suppliers fit into making migration practical.
According to Goodley, the pilot lets certificate authorities check issuance and compatibility with Microsoft platform capabilities in a controlled setting. She said that matters because no single component can declare success on its own, and the entire chain has to work. Her comments point to a broader theme in the pilot: post-quantum readiness depends on interoperability across platforms, protocols, certificate authorities, devices and existing infrastructure, not just on algorithms that function in isolation.
Goodley said Microsoft's approach begins with an actual customer or business problem, followed by an effort to understand operational constraints, rather than building a cryptographically interesting solution first and looking for a use case afterward. She said practical interoperability and measurable risk reduction carry more weight than being, in her words, crypto cool. The company also treats vendor dependencies as part of its readiness program rather than as an issue to resolve later, she said, because early coordination can surface compatibility and deployment constraints.
She urged the industry to make post-quantum migration its own problem before it becomes the customer's problem, and to deliver crypto agility, transparency and standards-based interoperability by default. Customers should not have to become cryptographers to prepare for the quantum era, she said. If the industry removes complexity and aligns on interoperable implementations, she added, quantum readiness will accelerate far faster than any single company could achieve alone.
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