Y2Q Quantum Threats Lurking, Are You Prepared?

Y2Q Quantum Threats Lurking, Are You Prepared?

Prepare Now for Year Y2Q Quantum Threats

Excerpts and salient points ~

+  Quantum computers are expected to supply the most powerful computing capabilities ever. Advances in quantum computing are finally beginning to reach commercial applications, such as IBM’s Q System One, the world’s first quantum computing system designed for commercial use, or Google’s claimed “quantum supremacy” when its computer successfully completed a task in 200 seconds that would have taken a traditional computer thousands of years to complete.

[I]t is highly unlikely that quantum computers breach cryptographic defenses soon, still, “Y2Q” — the year in which quantum code-cracking becomes a major headache — may arrive faster than we think.

+  But quantum computers could also undermine the cryptographic defenses of data and electronic communications such as in e-commerce sites, emails, credit bank accounts, etc. Quantum computers aren’t powerful enough to do this today. A US National Academies study says that to pose a real threat, quantum machines will need far more processing power than today’s best quantum machines have achieved. However, it is possible that in a little more than a decade — and perhaps even sooner — these machines could be a threat to widely used cryptography methods.

+  There are two main types of encryption. Symmetric encryption requires a sender and a receiver to have identical digital keys to encrypt and decrypt data, whereas asymmetric — or public-key — encryption uses a publicly available key to let people encrypt messages for a recipient who is the sole holder of the private key needed to unscramble them. Sometimes these two approaches are used together. 

+  New kinds of cryptographic approaches that can be implemented using today’s classical computers but will be impervious to attacks from tomorrow’s quantum ones are called post-quantum cryptography. The aim is to zero in on one or a few methods that can be widely adopted. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology launched a process in 2016 to develop standards for post-quantum encryption for government use. 

Source:  iHLS.  iHLS,  Prepare Now for Year Y2Q Quantum Threats…

Content may have been edited for style and clarity.

Share this article ...

Our Mission

At The Qubit Report, our mission is to promote knowledge and opinion of quantum computing from the casual reader to the scientifically astute.  Because Quantum is Coming.

Einstein Stroll