For years, data encryption has been for the most part safe and simple. However, many don’t know how online privacy protection actually works even though they utilize it everyday. Essentially, all of our information is encoded in a secret language called “ciphertext” and the only way that a recipient can view the information in its original form is by using a decryption key. Ever since the dawn of computers, this method of encryption has been secure because decoding any information when it is presented in ciphertext takes years for modern computers. Unfortunately for cyber security experts, this is all about to change because of quantum computing.
Quantum computers are very complicated, but explained simply they are machines that take advantage of properties of quantum mechanics to solve problems extremely fast. As of now, these machines are in the very early stages of development and don’t yet pose a real threat to data privacy. However, many experts fear that in the near future the processing power of quantum computers will render modern data encryption useless as these computers will be able to decrypt information in seconds. Robert Burns via SIW says, “The potential of quantum computers to break the current security of common activities in our daily lives could have severe consequences. The quantum cyber security threat forebodes data breaches of sensitive health and financial personal data, challenges to the integrity of digital assets, and breaking the fundamental cryptography underpinning cryptocurrencies” (securityinfowatch.com). The point of his message is that literally anything online is at risk, even your bank information.
Now, the solution to this problem is not very concrete yet, but jobs are being created by the day to work against the threat. The leading technology that is believed to eventually be strong enough to defend against quantum computing is called Post-quantum cryptography, or PQC. The essence of the approach is that it uses completely different mathematical algorithms to protect information compared to those used in traditional encryption. The issue with this is that the new algorithms are not yet compatible with many modern systems and therefore PQC would be very hard to implement.
So, although not many people are talking about, quantum computers pose a very real threat to modern cyber security as we know it. Over the next few decades we will see how the computer science community is able to defend against this threat and hopefully everybody will still have access to private data storage in the future.
