The First Steps of Post-Quantum Cryptography

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Quantum computers are extremely expensive devices that are still in active development, but they will one day hit the mass market, meaning businesses should prepare to unleash their power on modern encryption algorithms, writes eWeek.

In theory, quantum computers could crack encrypted data protected by today’s most sophisticated security tools in the blink of an eye, according to IBM Research Director Arvind Krishna. “Anyone who wants to make sure their data is protected for more than 10 years to come should switch to alternative forms of encryption,” he said at the recent IBM Think 2019 event in San Francisco, adding that quantum computing could potentially impact current cryptographic methodologies. All of this is bound to cause concern for computer owners who use them to protect valuable information.

This was the topic of discussion at the DigiCert Security israel whatsapp data 2019, which took place in Las Vegas two weeks before the IBM event. At the summit, DigiCert made a major announcement, announcing that it had begun developing post quantum cryptography (PQC) technology.

The threat of quantum decryption is real. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) predicts that within the next 20 years, large and powerful quantum computers will emerge that will be capable of cracking virtually all public key schemes currently in use. IBM and DigiCert disagree with NIST, suggesting that such systems will appear sooner.

"In the next 10 to 15 years, large-scale quantum computers will be available that can break RSA and ECC public-key cryptography," said Dr. Brian Lamacchia of Microsoft Research.

IT leaders need to think about data protection in a pre-quantum world
If the problem of decrypting data is being tackled by NIST, a US federal government agency that invests heavily in quantum computing, and a company that develops cybersecurity solutions based on SSL/TLS and PKI encryption protocols, there is every reason to believe that the threat of quantum hacking of modern cryptography methods is real and should not be taken lightly. In fact, this threat has spurred the search for solutions to prevent quantum attacks, one of which was the emergence of the PQC concept.