Growing concenrs about quantum computers' ability to break commonly used encryption
There are growing concerns about quantum computers’ eventual ability to circumvent commonly used encryption. That could still be decades away, but 20 Members of the European Parliament, led by Dutch MEP Bart Groothuis, want organizations to start preparing themselves. The Dutch intelligence service AIVD shares the concerns, NOS reports.
Cryptographic keys are currently the most used way to prevent unauthorized persons from reading communications, from sensitive communications between governments to text messages on WhatsApp. The encryption mathematically scrambles the data. Regular computers cannot crack that key in practice because the number of possible mathematical combinations is so high. But there are growing fears that quantum computers, which work fundamentally differently, will eventually be able to do that.
Quantum computing has not reached that point yet, and “Q-Day” may still be decades away. But governments and critical organizations must already start protecting themselves. “We see an enormous hunger for data in countries like China,” the AIVD told the broadcaster. These countries are already intercepting data in the hope that they’ll be able to crack the encryption at some point. It is, therefore, important that organizations whose data will still be sensitive in a few decades’ time to already implement quantum-safe protection. Software developers need to work on that urgently, the AVID said.
“We must start this now,” MEP Groothuis told the broadcaster. He initiated a public letter by 20 MEPs calling on governments and organizations to implement other ways to protect their data. “We cannot take that risk. The most important organizations must start doing this now.”
Switching to other algorithms that are more resistant to quantum computers will be a complicated process because both the sender and receiver must use the same technology. With a banking website, for example, both the bank’s web server and the web browser must support the same new technology.
