Keeping enterprise data safe from malicious actors has been a key focus of businesses these past few years, and encryption used to be among the most surefire methods for protecting sensitive information. In spite of the fact that this is the case, the rise of quantum computing is putting encryption in jeopardy. IBM recently put out a report that highlights this trend, and the findings are rather concerning.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that malicious actors can use quantum computing protocols to decrypt data much more quickly than might have been the case otherwise. They don’t even need to use present day quantum computing. Instead, they can harvest data and wait for quantum computing to advance enough that they can decrypt it.
There is no telling how much data these malicious actors have harvested which might get decrypted down the line. Traditional cryptography protocols such as RSA are mathematics based, and while they have been quite effective for a good long while, they might be helpless in the face of quantum computers with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Quantum computing is interesting because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up brute forcing previously unsolvable math problems. This reveals that data encryption will need to take things up a notch, otherwise hackers will be able to decrypt the data without much trouble.
President Biden is the latest in a long line of world leaders that are trying to address the matter before it ends up spinning out of control. It is essential to act quickly, since there is a high level of likelihood that decryption will rise once quantum computing becomes commonplace.
This just goes to show that innovation is a double edged sword. It can make a lot of things way easier, but at the same time it can complicate other protocols that used to work perfectly well. We’ll have to wait and see how the tech world solves this quantum computing problem.
Photo: IBM Research / Flickr
Read next: Researchers Warn Against A Massive Number Of Apps Carrying Security Flaws In Their First Year Of Existence
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that malicious actors can use quantum computing protocols to decrypt data much more quickly than might have been the case otherwise. They don’t even need to use present day quantum computing. Instead, they can harvest data and wait for quantum computing to advance enough that they can decrypt it.
There is no telling how much data these malicious actors have harvested which might get decrypted down the line. Traditional cryptography protocols such as RSA are mathematics based, and while they have been quite effective for a good long while, they might be helpless in the face of quantum computers with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Quantum computing is interesting because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up brute forcing previously unsolvable math problems. This reveals that data encryption will need to take things up a notch, otherwise hackers will be able to decrypt the data without much trouble.
President Biden is the latest in a long line of world leaders that are trying to address the matter before it ends up spinning out of control. It is essential to act quickly, since there is a high level of likelihood that decryption will rise once quantum computing becomes commonplace.
This just goes to show that innovation is a double edged sword. It can make a lot of things way easier, but at the same time it can complicate other protocols that used to work perfectly well. We’ll have to wait and see how the tech world solves this quantum computing problem.
Read next: Researchers Warn Against A Massive Number Of Apps Carrying Security Flaws In Their First Year Of Existence
