full

Q-Day: Building the Quantum Future with Katie Arrington of IonQ

Published on: 7th September, 2026

Someone may already be copying your encrypted traffic. They cannot read it yet. Q-Day is when that could change.

Katie Arrington, Quantum Technical Evangelist at IonQ and former senior technology and cybersecurity leader at the Department of War, joins Dr. Tuboise Floyd for a plainspoken conversation about the decisions leaders must make before cryptographically relevant quantum computing arrives.

Katie has stood on both sides of the desk. She previously performed the duties of chief information officer for the Department of War and served as deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity, overseeing defense-wide cyber strategy, governance, and compliance. Today, she is helping explain the technology that could reshape the systems she once helped defend.

In this episode:

  • What Q-Day means for public-key encryption
  • Why “harvest now, decrypt later” creates risk before quantum computers can break encryption
  • How organizations should approach post-quantum cryptography and cryptographic inventories
  • Why leaders will have to decide what gets upgraded, rebuilt, or left behind
  • How quantum sensing, timing, and networking could reshape modern conflict
  • The difference between artificial intelligence and quantum computing
  • How trapped-ion quantum computers work
  • Why fidelity and fault tolerance matter
  • Where humans belong in an AI- and quantum-enabled future
  • What quantum and AI could mean for jobs and workforce development

The hardest question is not whether quantum is coming. It is who decides what must be protected first—and what evidence supports that decision.

About Katie Arrington

Katie Arrington is Quantum Technical Evangelist at IonQ. She previously performed the duties of chief information officer for the Department of War, advising the secretary on enterprise information management, cyber assurance, and emerging technology policy. She also served as deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity and as chief information security officer for acquisition and sustainment.

Follow IonQ: https://www.ionq.com

About The Briefing

The Briefing with Dr. Tuboise Floyd examines consequential technology decisions across artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum technology, and emerging risk. Creative Director: Jeremy Jarvis.

Find the decision. Follow the evidence. Name who owns it.

Listen, watch, and follow the show: https://humansignal.io/thebriefing

Partner disclosure

This episode is underwritten by Founding Decision Assurance Partner MCGlobalTech.

MCGlobalTech built the CMMC Assured Enclave to help small and midsized defense contractors operate their cybersecurity and compliance obligations after the assessment. Learn more at https://cmmcassured.com

The views expressed by the guest are her own. Discussion of companies, markets, or securities is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for The Briefing with Dr. Tuboise Floyd

About the Podcast

The Briefing with Dr. Tuboise Floyd
AI · Quantum · Cyber · Decision Assurance · Human Signal
ABOUT THE PODCAST

The Briefing with Dr. Tuboise Floyd

The Briefing is for leaders who build, approve, procure, govern, or certify consequential technology.

Hosted by Dr. Tuboise Floyd, Founder and Principal, Decision Assurance at Human Signal, the show examines the operating reality beneath technology strategy: decision authority, accountability, controls, evidence, critical infrastructure, and the conditions that produce institutional failure.

The market is crowded with technology noise, checklists, and compliance theater. The Briefing focuses on the harder question:

What governance infrastructure must exist before autonomous and emerging systems create exposure that leadership cannot explain, defend, or control?

Episodes use Human Signal’s TAIMScore™, GASP™ Diagnostic, L.E.A.C. Protocol™, and Failure Files™ approaches to examine real-world failures, identify structural risk, and surface the decisions leaders must make before scrutiny arrives.

Produced with Creative Director Jeremy Jarvis, The Briefing covers AI governance, cyber risk, post-quantum readiness, critical infrastructure, government contracting, and the builder economy.

New episodes, visual briefings, and practical playbooks:

https://humansignal.io/thebriefing

The Briefing is a Human Signal production. Human Signal is an independent decision-assurance advisory and research platform.

DISCLOSURE

All episode content, including analysis, case studies, and framework applications, is provided for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast constitutes legal, regulatory, compliance, financial, or professional advice. Listening to or engaging with this content does not create an advisory or consulting relationship.

Guest opinions are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Human Signal or Dr. Tuboise Floyd. Case studies and institutional-failure analyses use publicly available information and are presented as educational tools, not legal findings or regulatory determinations.

This podcast uses OP3 for privacy-friendly audience measurement:

https://op3.dev/privacy

© 2026 Dr. Tuboise Floyd. All rights reserved.
Support This Show