Quantum computing could undermine widely used public-key encryption, driving research into quantum-resistant algorithms and secure migration planning.
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Background for this topic.
Quantum computing uses quantum-mechanical effects in qubits to solve some problems differently from conventional computers. In information security, its significance is primarily cryptographic: a sufficiently capable, fault-tolerant quantum computer could use Shor’s algorithm to break RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography, which protect certificates, key exchanges, signatures, and encrypted archives. Quantum computing is not expected to break all cryptography equally; symmetric encryption and cryptographic hashes generally require larger security parameters rather than replacement for the same reason.
The practical concern is “harvest now, decrypt later”: adversaries can collect encrypted traffic today for future decryption, especially when data must remain confidential for years. Organizations should inventory public-key algorithms and long-lived sensitive data, assess dependencies such as certificates and protocols, and plan migration to standardized post-quantum cryptography with crypto-agile systems. Quantum key distribution is a separate, specialized communications approach; it does not replace endpoint security, authentication, or conventional key-management controls and has significant deployment constraints.
Weekly headline count for the current query.
The time is maybe Quantum computing exists in a sort of superposition with regard to cryptography – it's both a pending threat and a technology of no immediate consequence for decryption.…
Hasn't released it to the public, because it would break the internet - in a bad way For years, the infosec community’s biggest existential worry has been quantum computers blowing away all classical encryption and revealing the world’s secrets. Now they have a new Big Bad: an AI model that can generate zero-day vulnerabilities.…
Company thinks you’ll contemplate replacing most security kit in the next few years to stay safe Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora has suggested hostile nation-states will possess quantum computers in 2029, or even a little earlier, at which point most security appliances will need to be replaced.…
PLUS: Comet AI browser fooled; Microsoft sets sail for quantum safety; Sailor sent down for espionage Infosec in brief PLUS…
Computer scientist Peter Gutmann tells The Reg why it's 'bollocks' The US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has been pushing for the development of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms since 2016.…
Wow, a government project that could be on time for once ... cos it's gonna be wayyyy more than a decade The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) today started the post-quantum cryptography (PQC) countdown clock by claiming organizations have ten years to migrate to a safer future.…
The likes of SHA-256, RSA, ECDSA and ECDH won't be welcome in just five years Australia's chief cyber security agency has decided local orgs should stop using the tech that forms the current cryptographic foundation of the internet by the year 2030 – years before other nations plan to do so – over fears that advances in quantum computing could render it insecure.…
With an off-the-shelf D-Wave machine Chinese researchers claim they have found a way to use D-Wave's quantum annealing systems to develop a promising attack on classical encryption.…
* Quite Unlikely A New Technology’s Useful, Man Opinion We have a new call to arms in the 21st century battlefront between the West and China. The Middle Kingdom is building an uncrackable national infrastructure based on quantum key distribution (QKD). The laws of physics are being used against us, and we're not keeping up, claims a think tank.…
Beijing aimed research at immediate needs – like blocking leaks – while the US sought abstract knowledge China has an undeniable lead in quantum networking technology – a state of affairs that should give the US pause, despite its lead in quantum computing.…
Are you prepared for the day that quantum computing breaks today’s encryption? Sponsored Feature The internet is all about transparency and openness - connecting people and information, shoppers and vendors, or businesses. But it's also all about security and trust.…
Nicely ahead of that always-a-decade-away moment when all our info becomes an open book The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today released the long-awaited post-quantum encryption standards, designed to protect electronic information long into the future – when quantum computers are expected to break existing cryptographic algorithms.…
Guess we all have imaginary monsters to fear Zoom has rolled out what it claims is post-quantum end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for video conferencing, saying it will make it available for Phone and Rooms "soon."…
Everything you need to know about quantum safe encryption Webinar The quantum threat might seem futuristic, more like something you'd encounter in a science fiction film. But it's arguably already a danger to real cyber security defences.…
Easy to defend against stuff that may never actually work – oh there we go again, being all cynical like Apple says it's going to upgrade the cryptographic protocol used by iMessage to hopefully prevent the decryption of conversations by quantum computers, should those machines ever exist in a meaningful way.…
No time like the present, says central bank The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) advised on Monday that financial institutions need to stay agile enough to adopt post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD) technology, without significantly impacting systems as part of cyber security measures.…
X3DH readied for retirement as PQXDH is rolled out Signal has adopted a new key agreement protocol in an effort to keep encrypted Signal chat messages protected from any future quantum computers.…
QC crypto-cracking coming in 5, 10, maybe 50 years, so act … now? Google has started deploying a hybrid key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) to protect the sharing of symmetric encryption secrets during the establishment of secure TLS network connections.…
Heavily hyped tech bound for big time by decade end Research conducted by Fujitsu suggests there is no need to panic about quantum computers being able to decode encrypted data – this is unlikely to happen in the near future, it claims.…
Near-term vulnerability of RSA-2048 keys not so near, says quantum boffin Scott Aaronson Briefly this week, it appeared that quantum computers might finally be ready to break 2048-bit RSA encryption, but that moment has passed.…