Event Horizon Group's Quantum resilient encryption (QRE) Goes Exclusive to Manufacturing: What MSP4MFG Announced at IMTS 2026

A single infected laptop can idle a machining cell long enough that the loss is counted in six figures every hour — yet the machines themselves have historically sat outside the reach of mainstream corporate security tools. That tension was the starting point for news released today from McCormick Place in Chicago, where MSP4MFG LLC and Event Horizon Group said they have signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement covering quantum resilient encryption (QRE) for the manufacturing sector. MyTechDailyNews breaks down what changed, what plant operators should look at next, and the questions readers are most likely to ask.

The announcement in one paragraph

Event Horizon Group — the parent company of Q, WARP10 and CEW Systems Canada — and MSP4MFG LLC of Cheyenne, Wyoming confirmed the deal at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS). Under it, MSP4MFG will apply Event Horizon Group's quantum resilient encryption (QRE) technology across the manufacturing sector. The first applications are the company's manufacturing security platform and its new "MSP4" secure edge device, both also being announced this week at IMTS 2026 in Chicago. The stated targets are engineering data, CNC machine communications and controlled technical information — including part programs, drawings and models that move between engineering networks and shop-floor machines every day — protected at rest, in motion and at the machine, on smart edge devices that connect legacy and modern CNC equipment. Direct aim is taken at industrial espionage and the theft of engineering data, and future development is planned for PLCs and related industrial control systems.

Deal at a glance

Item	Detail
Who signed	MSP4MFG LLC (Cheyenne, Wyoming) and Event Horizon Group
Where and when	International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) at McCormick Place; products arrive this week at IMTS 2026 in Chicago, with the agreement disclosed today
Scope of the license	Exclusive worldwide use of quantum resilient encryption (QRE) across the manufacturing sector
First products	MSP4MFG manufacturing security platform and the MSP4 secure edge device
Protected assets	Engineering data, CNC machine communications, controlled technical information such as part programs, drawings and models
Environments named	CNC machine tool environments used worldwide in aerospace, automotive, defense supply chains, job shops and fabrication
Next on the roadmap	PLCs and related industrial control systems
Technology origin	QRE was developed by CEW Systems Canada, an Event Horizon Group company

Why the timing matters

Three pressures explain why a shop-floor encryption story is landing now rather than in a data-center headline.

• Incident cost: manufacturing is now the number-one ransomware target, and downtime commonly exceeds US$100,000 per hour.
• Auditor pressure: insurers and the CMMC / NIST framework family continue to raise the bar, moving security spend away from the office and toward production.
• Market growth: industry analysts at DataM Intelligence estimate the industrial cybersecurity market at approximately US$84.5 billion in 2024, growing to US$135.9 billion by 2029 — a 9.6% CAGR.

Within that growth curve, MSP4MFG's founding premise is that generic, office-centric security providers still underserve mid-market plants — the gap the company was formed to close. This agreement is best read as an attempt to answer that gap with manufacturing-native tooling rather than repackaged enterprise software.

How QRE is described, minus the jargon

At the technical layer, QRE is built on bi-symmetric encryption — a hybridized handshake technology designed for the quantum era. A simple way to think about it: instead of a worker showing a badge at the door, the two sides prove they know something through a back-and-forth exchange in which the secret itself never travels across the wire.

• Login credentials are never transmitted in a challenge / counter-challenge handshake, removing the most commonly exploited attack surface.
• Handshake data is fully salted and randomized, designed to defeat interception, replay and pattern analysis.
• Brute-force attack is made computationally impractical — including for quantum-capable adversaries — by an exponentially nested formula, with false-positive spaces exceeding manufacturable data storage limits.
• A lightweight footprint is suited to resource-constrained industrial edge devices, with a built-in password manager supporting complex credentials and two-factor authentication.

Hardened, manufacturing-native security is extended to CNC machine tool environments together with other MSP4MFG cyber technologies. Built-in capabilities listed for the platform include a security operations center (SOC), security incident event management (SIEM), endpoint detection and response (EDR), vulnerability management (VM), patch management and penetration testing, all based on a hardened operating system.

Compliance frameworks named in the release

Within the MSP4MFG platform, QRE supports manufacturers pursuing governance frameworks — CMMC 2.0, NIST SP 800-171, ITAR, NERC-CIP, CIS, ISO / IEC, SOC2, OWASP, CRA, NIS2, OT360™ and DFARS obligations — by protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) throughout the production environment. For a supplier that has only ever treated these as paperwork, the practical consequence is that the machines themselves become part of the audit boundary.

What the executives said

“The machine tool is where a manufacturer’s intellectual property is most exposed, and it is the one place traditional security vendors never seem to reach. Exclusive access to QRE lets us protect part programs and engineering data all the way to the spindle — without taking production offline,” said Tom Gaasenbeek, Managing Director, MSP4MFG LLC.

“Manufacturing is exactly the environment Quantum Resilient Encryption was built for: high-value data, legacy equipment and adversaries with growing computational power. MSP4MFG’s plant-floor reach makes them the right exclusive partner to carry QRE into this important sector, ” said David Palachik, chief executive officer of Event Horizon Group.

Who is behind the announcement

MSP4MFG LLC is headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming and describes itself as the plant-floor managed services provider focused on securing operations. Three specialized partners — Excellerant (production intelligence and machine monitoring), Nexas (machine connectivity and OT integration) and OBETEC (cybersecurity and compliance) — are united under MSP4MFG to deliver integrated IT, OT and cybersecurity services built for manufacturers rather than adapted from office IT, following a connect, monitor, optimize, secure, comply and continuously improve model.

On the other side of the agreement, Event Horizon Group is the developer of Bi-Symmetric Quantum Resilient Encryption and the parent company of Q, WARP10 and CEW Systems Canada.

Common misconceptions

• "Quantum resilient" does not mean a factory's equipment has been swapped out. The positioning here is protection for legacy and modern CNC equipment connected through smart edge devices.
• This is not a general office security refresh. The claim is plant-floor reach — part programs, drawings and models — the zone where traditional security vendors are described as never seeming to arrive.
• An exclusive worldwide license is a commercial arrangement, not a universal upgrade. It means MSP4MFG is the designated partner to carry QRE into this sector, not that every manufacturer is automatically covered.
• Announcement at a trade show is not deployment. The platform and the MSP4 secure edge device were introduced this week, so rollout details will matter more than the headline.

Action checklist for readers who run or support production

1. Map what leaves engineering daily: list the part programs, drawings, models and other controlled technical information that cross between design networks and machines.
2. Inventory machine-side connectivity in CNC environments, including legacy equipment that still depends on unmanaged links.
3. Check exposure against the frameworks your customers require — CMMC 2.0, NIST SP 800-171, ITAR, NERC-CIP, CIS, ISO / IEC, SOC2, OWASP, CRA, NIS2, OT360™ and DFARS.
4. Ask vendors two specific questions: does protection cover data at rest, in motion and at the machine, and are login credentials ever transmitted during authentication?
5. Price your own downtime so a US$100,000 per hour scenario can be compared honestly against security investment.
6. Track the roadmap: PLCs and related industrial control systems are named as the next development area.

FAQ

What is quantum resilient encryption (QRE)?

It is an encryption approach built on bi-symmetric encryption — a hybridized handshake technology designed for the quantum era — developed by CEW Systems Canada and now licensed exclusively to MSP4MFG for the manufacturing sector under the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) announcement.

Where was it announced and what shipped alongside it?

The agreement was disclosed today at McCormick Place, and the MSP4MFG manufacturing security platform plus the new MSP4 secure edge device were announced this week at IMTS 2026 in Chicago.

What does it actually protect?

Engineering data, CNC machine communications and controlled technical information, including part programs and drawings, protected at rest, in motion and at the machine.

Does it replace existing security tools?

The release positions QRE alongside other MSP4MFG cyber technologies and built-in capabilities — SOC, SIEM, EDR, VM, patch management and penetration testing — running on a hardened operating system, aimed at plant-floor operations rather than replacing office IT controls.

Why should a small supplier care?

Because the frameworks named — CMMC 2.0, NIST SP 800-171, ITAR and the rest — flow down supply chains, and mid-market plants are described as the segment that generic, office-centric security providers still underserve.

Is anything new on the horizon?

Yes, according to the announcement: hardened security currently targets CNC machine tool environments, with future development planned for PLCs and related industrial control systems.

For readers who do not follow industrial security day to day, the takeaway is simple: the post-quantum conversation has moved out of the data center and onto the machine tool, and an exclusive license signed at IMTS 2026 is one measure of how early that shift already is. The same pressures are likely to reappear in every future factory-security story — ransomware downtime priced above US$100,000 per hour, compliance demands from CMMC and NIST, and a market forecast climbing from US$84.5 billion in 2024 to US$135.9 billion by 2029 at 9.6% CAGR. The open question for 2026 is not whether QRE works on paper, but how far MSP4MFG can push it across CNC estates before the PLC phase begins.