Our Quantum Cybersecurity
This work covers a lot of ground concerning the advent of quantum computing and the threat to cybersecurity. Worth the effort to read and re-kindle some of the industry, government and academic initiatives and organizations tackling the issue. Because Quantum is Coming. Qubit.
Inside the race to quantum-proof our vital infrastructure
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ “We were on the verge of giving up a few years ago because people were not interested in quantum at the time. Our name became a joke,” said Andersen Cheng, CEO of the UK cybersecurity firm Post-Quantum. After all, he continued, how can you be post- something that hasn’t happened yet?
+ But with billions of pounds, renminbi, euros and dollars (US, Canadian and Australian) being pumped into the development of quantum computers by both governments and the private sector and with that research starting to bear fruit, exemplified by Google’s achievement of quantum supremacy, no-one’s laughing now.
“You can have your RSA, the current protocol, with a PQ [post-quantum] wrapper and make the whole thing almost universal, like a plug with round pins, square pins or a mixture of both. Then when the day comes customers can just turn off RSA and switch over to the chosen PQ algorithm”.
+ One day, perhaps quite soon, the tried and trusted public-key cryptography algorithms that protect internet traffic will be rendered obsolete. Overnight, a state in possession of a workable quantum computer could start cracking open its stockpiles of encrypted secrets harvested over the years from rival nations. Billions of private conversations and passwords would be laid bare and critical national infrastructure around the world would be open to attack.
+ “The point is to be crypto-agile,” Prisco said. “If a company is trying to come up with a quantum-safe strategy they can implement this product that has quantum-resistant algorithms, electronic quantum keys and optical quantum keys, so it becomes a level-of-service discussion. If you have a link that absolutely has to be protected by the laws of physics, you’d use an optical quantum key. If there’s virtually no chance of someone intercepting the data with your key you could use a trusted exchange and the combination of the quantum-resistant algorithm with the quantum random number generated key is very powerful.”
Source: computing. John Leonard, Inside the race to quantum-proof our vital infrastructure…
Content may have been edited for style and clarity.
