Quantum Computers Could Make Today’s Encryption Defenceless

Humans are an inherently technological and social species, so we care deeply about who knows and who doesn’t know our secrets. Cryptography, the technology of keeping secrets, has changed the course of history, from the rise and fall of empires, such as the breaking of the Enigma machine in the Second World War, to the development of digital currencies.

Today’s battle of keeping secrets revolves around cybersecurity, and the question of the moment is how we can protect our digital information against more powerful encryption-breaking processors that are likely to be developed in the future. In the midst of geopolitical conflicts, it is crucial for both companies and nation-states to address this question head-on. The time is now to take steps to arm your data with encryption that not only safeguards it against today’s cybercriminals, but tomorrow’s, too.

How Quantum Computers Could Break Today’s Encryption

Classical encryption relies on complex mathematical problems that take an immense amount of time for a traditional computer to solve to protect sensitive digital data.

Encryption algorithms like RSA, AES and others are designed to make it extremely difficult to reverse-engineer the encrypted data without knowing the key used to encrypt it. Breaking the encryption would require testing every possible key, which would take an enormous amount of time using classical computers.

For example, AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm that uses a 128-bit or 256-bit key to encrypt data, meaning many possible keys exist to try. We estimate that even the fastest supercomputer available today would take billions of years to test every possible key and crack the encryption.

Quantum computers use a different computing architecture that can solve certain types of problems much faster than classical computers, including the mathematical problems used in some encryption methods. As such, quantum computers have the potential to render current encryption methods vulnerable to attack, compromising the security of sensitive data. Thus, the threat becomes real when more powerful quantum computers are developed in the future, which could defeat commonly used encryption systems.

Quantum computers powerful enough to break today’s encryption methods pose a serious threat to personal and professional information, from trade secrets to national security files and military plans.

Stored Data Plants The Seed For A Terrible Harvest

In our fast-paced world, it is easy to think that what you do every day is uninteresting and untraceable. This is not the case. For example, while you may have forgotten that you attended a protest one weekend a few years ago, the geolocation data logs on your phone remember. The rise of at-home genetic tests and online medical records means your most intimate data could be up for grabs by cybercriminals both today and in the future. Internet searches, financial data and criminal background information are all online for regular citizens, celebrities, political leaders, etc. Likewise, companies can store trade secrets in the cloud, and state actors possess classified digital documents that must be kept confidential for many years or decades.

The problem is that this data is not often deleted, and bad actors can store encrypted data today with the intent to decrypt it once a powerful enough quantum computer is developed to do so. Much like people who have their bodies cryogenically frozen after death bet that the technology to bring them back to life will be developed in the future, today’s data thieves are counting on stealing data today and storing it until more powerful computers can decrypt it and present opportunities for espionage, blackmail or sale in the future. Personal human genotypes, trade secrets and matters of national security will all be ripe for the taking unless steps are taken now to protect this valuable information.

What You Can Do Today To Make Your Data Safer

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and an international community of cryptographers have been preparing quantum-safe methods of encryption for several years. Transitioning to their recommended encryption protocols or quantum cryptography is a smart step. It’s clear that quantum hacking presents a significant challenge to the long-term security of many of the currently employed encryption methods.

To create better security for your information today, several steps may be taken. Using quantum effects in encryption, such as encoding information in quantum states or generating keys using quantum random number generators, provides the highest level of security today. New cryptographic schemes and protocols such as quantum key distribution should be deployed in all network-based communication. Another good move is to use quantum random number generators to make your cryptographic keys impossible for hackers to predict.

Now Is The Time To Future-Proof Your Data

Quantum technologies are shifting the security landscape. With one eye on the present and the other on the future, it is vital to stay alert to where the dangers are lurking.

Small upgrades to an organization’s infrastructure are not always simple, and larger changes are even more challenging. This means your organization will feel the effects of the choices you make around securing your data today for a long time. The choice to do nothing is a choice that could come back to haunt you with devastating consequences in the future. Now is the time to protect your data from the future’s more-powerful, encryption-breaking quantum technology. By seizing the moment, you can put your future on a more secure footing, and you may find yourself at the centre of the second quantum revolution.