Dustin Moody, a mathematician at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), states: “The risk that the enemy of the world will get too much computer and access to your information is a fact. “The problem is that they copy what you write and keep it until they have a bigger computer.”
In the face of this “harvest now and post-harvest” approach, officials are trying to develop and implement new security measures for the emerging group of powerful machines. This includes the Department of Homeland Security, which claims to be leading a long and complex transition to so-called post-quantum cryptography.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where we have to wake up one morning and there has been a technological change, and then we have to work for three or four years in a few months – and all the other risks,” said Tim Maurer, an adviser to the Secretary of Homeland Security. cybersecurity is an upcoming technology.
DHS recently released a road map in transformation, starting with the call to name the most affected, in government and in business. Maurer says this is the first important step “to see the sections that are already doing, and those that need help or information to make sure they are taking action here.”
Preparation
Experts say it could take a decade or more for quantum computers to do any useful thing, but with the money being poured into the field in China and the US, competition continues to make this possible and create better protection for quantum. rebellion.
The US, through NIST, has been active competition since 2016 which seeks to develop the first quantum-computer-proof algorithms by 2024, according to Moody, who is leading the NIST project on post-quantum cryptography.
Switching to new cryptography is a well-known trick and long-term operation, and one is easy to ignore until it’s too late. It can be difficult to find for-profit organizations to use for future risk years before the risk.
“If corporations do not think about this change,” says Maurer, “they are frustrated with the timing of the NIST project and the urgency of the situation, which increases the risk of accident. “