{"id":84893,"date":"2025-10-17T19:11:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/84893\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T19:11:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:11:06","slug":"quantum-cryptography-offers-ability-to-protect-from-attackers-looking-to-break-encryption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/84893\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantum cryptography offers ability to protect from attackers looking to break encryption"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quantum computing<\/a> isn\u2019t widely available yet, but the time is likely coming\u2014and with it, the ability for users to deploy the technology for encryption and cryptography.<\/p>\n

That includes threat actors. Marc Lijour, an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers researcher, told IT Brew that attackers are already getting ready for the opportunity provided by quantum computing. They are \u201cdownloading everything they can at the moment and storing it, basically copying the internet and anything they can so they can open it later [using quantum technology],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Big time. That probably only applies to nation-states, John Bruggeman, a consulting CISO, said. To Bruggeman, the likelihood is low that criminals are storing the information, but high that countries are.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the world\u2019s largest storage repository is out in [Bluffdale] Utah\u2014thanks to [former Utah senator Orrin Hatch and the NSA\u2014and they are definitely, without a doubt, storing lots and lots of internet traffic waiting for the day when they can decrypt it using a quantum computer,\u201d Bruggeman said.<\/p>\n

Advances in quantum computing<\/a> have, thus far, been limited in use to researchers and other high-volume projects. But the future of the technology is in commercial viability, Rigetti Computing CEO Subodh Kulkarni told IT Brew: \u201cAlmost all of us in the quantum computing field are absolutely convinced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Number games. Much of the talk around quantum computing remains hypothetical, but it\u2019s fun to think about the possibilities. Oliver Dial, IBM Quantum CTO, told IT Brew that because the most common public key encryption online is based on factoring large number sets, a large enough quantum computer could theoretically break most of it.<\/p>\n

Top insights for IT pros<\/p>\n

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\u201cThose machines are still far outside of our reach, and it\u2019s worth noting that there are new encryption protocols that are already approved by NIST, which are not vulnerable to this attack\u2014they\u2019re called quantum safe encryption algorithms,\u201d Dial said. \u201cIt\u2019s actually something that the world is working on adopting today to remove that boogeyman from the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving forward. Switching encryption algorithms is easier than you might think, Bruggeman said, and \u201ccan be done in the background without disrupting day-to-day operations.\u201d Often, users don\u2019t even notice. Changing these backend details can be done quietly; it\u2019s effectively a security software upgrade.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou change the protocol that you\u2019re using for the encryption algorithm, and now your point-to-point connections are no longer susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks and harvest and decrypt later,\u201d Bruggeman said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a total fix to the issue, but it\u2019s an easy step in the right direction. Bruggeman analogized it to developing fiber- optic internet solutions\u2014one doesn\u2019t have to change hardware as you increase the number of users.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine a scenario where you have fiber optic in your physical building\u2014you\u2019re in an office building, and you have 1,000 rooms and you have 1,000 people that come into work,\u201d Bruggeman said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to change the fiber, you probably don\u2019t even have to change the switches. The only thing you\u2019d have to change is the backbone communication protocol.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quantum computing isn\u2019t widely available yet, but the time is likely coming\u2014and with it, the ability for users…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[371,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-84893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-computing","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}