“Many of us are likely to become victims of technology’s ongoing evolution if a solution to security in the age of quantum computers is not found.”
Communications of the ACM, March 6, 2018
ACM News: “Hackers’ Delight: Does Quantum Computing Spell the End for Encryption?”
By Joe Dysart
Security researchers warn that hackers are currently gobbling up encrypted data, and patiently waiting for the day when quantum computers will easily break their encryptions.
“Intelligence agencies are already recording massive amounts of encrypted data sent over the networks in the hope to successfully decrypt them with powerful quantum computers in a few years,” says Tim Guneysu, chair for security engineering at Germany’s Ruhr University Bochum.
Today’s encryption methods used to send data securely over the Internet are expected to be no match for the power of tomorrow’s quantum computers.
High on the radar of the data thieves: corporate trade secrets, health records, criminal records, and any other sensitive data that hackers believe they will be able to sell, trade, or leverage in the quantum era.
See also: PQCRYPTO, a European research consortium of 11 universities and companies put together by the European Commission, which has been charged with the development of a preventative solution to the looming threat of widespread data theft.
