How Does Quantum Computing Impact Security?
The advent of quantum computing raises several cybersecurity concerns for IT leaders. Most significantly, quantum computers could be used to crack public key infrastructure (PKI) that is used to secure a multitude of common web interactions.
Additionally, malicious actors could steal sensitive data today and then wait for quantum computing to advance to the point where it can be used to easily break today’s advanced encryption technologies. There’s still time to get ahead of these challenges, experts say, but IT leaders must be aware of the risks and remain agile.
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What Are the Security Risks to Expect from Quantum Computing?
A key area of vulnerability, France says, concerns asymmetric encryption algorithms, used for things such as the HTTPS web protocol.
“If it’s a public key photography, it’s probably using one of the vulnerable algorithms,” France says. Organizations need to think about how to replace algorithms that are vulnerable with safe ones, but some of those are going to be difficult to change, he explains.
For instance, an Internet of Things device that uses PKI may not have the computing power to take in a new algorithm or be updated. “We’re going to have things in market that are probably going to be vulnerable for quite some time,” he says.
Quantum computing also leaves organizations vulnerable to the “collect now, break later” mentality, France says, in which attackers could steal data that is encrypted now, wait five or so years for quantum computers to scale up and become more widely available, then use them to decrypt the data.
This is more of a concern for governments or enterprises that have secret data with a long shelf life. “You’ve really got to be thinking about it now,” France says.
West says that government information, defense information, data held by financial institutions and possibly medical information might be impacted by this risk. “The problem is that now people are stealing it and holding onto it until later,” she says. “That’s where we have to start thinking about this, and these initiatives are starting to come into play.”
