CypherCon 2026
My Crash Course in Quantum Crypto: Building a Post-Quantum Telemetry Shield from Scratch
Jamie Grunewald
Abstract:
Let’s face it, quantum computing poses a credible threat to the cryptographic systems currently protecting satellite communications, yet many space architectures remain dependent on legacy encryption and limited onboard compute. This talk presents, AegisLEO, my low‑cost learning project, an open‑source satellite telemetry security testbed designed to explore post‑quantum defenses using real hardware.
AegisLEO simulates a low‑Earth‑orbit satellite link using a Raspberry Pi 5 as the spacecraft, an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super as the ground station, and a Proxmox‑hosted Kali Linux system as an active adversary. The system will simulate the transmission telemetry secured with a post‑quantum key exchange. A custom TensorFlow autoencoder provides anomaly detection to identify tampered telemetry under active man‑in‑the‑middle attacks.
The talk walks through the attack and defense scenarios demonstrating how authenticated encryption, post‑quantum key exchange, and edge machine learning can be combined to protect satellite links today.
This work draws on established cryptographic and space security literature, including Ferguson, Schneier, and Kohno; Aumasson; Oakley’s Cybersecurity for Space (2nd ed.); and Géron’s Hands‑On Machine Learning (3rd ed.).
Jamie Grunewald
Defending Society From Malicious 1’s and 0’s
Jamie is a cybersecurity professional at AB Data, where he is responsible for securing Microsoft 365 endpoint environments. His work focuses not only on physical security, but also on endpoint hardening, identity protection, end-user training, and defending enterprise systems against modern adversary techniques.
Jamie holds a Master of Science degree in Cybersecurity from the University of Delaware and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Cardinal Stritch University. He is also CompTIA Security+ certified, blending engineering rigor with practical, operations-driven security experience. Guided by a “never stop learning” mindset, his deeper technical interests span reverse engineering, data fusion, applied AI, and advanced cyber operations, much of it developed through continuous, self-directed research.
A veteran of the Wisconsin Army National Guard, Jamie brings a mission-first perspective to cybersecurity and remains committed to veteran causes. Outside of work, he is a husband and father, an avid reader of geopolitics and history, and an explorer of nature and the night sky.