The tech industry may have a decade or less to solve its biggest security threat ever: the development of quantum computers able to break the cryptography that underlies everything from online banking to building security cards. One company trying to solve the problem is Isara, a two-year-old startup backed by Research In Motion co-founder Mike Lazaridis, which is applying RIM’s security expertise to the quantum security challenge.

Quantum computers are still in development, but they are expected to be able to process vastly more data than regular computers. While that promises to speed everything from medical design to weather prediction, the ability to break security measures on computers may be more significant.