The Problem with Legacy Public Key Encryption

Dave Krauthamer / HelpNetSecurity / 15 Jul 2022

QuSecure presents an article written by our CEO and Co-Founder Dave Krauthamer, published in HelpNetSecurity’s newsletter.

Key points of the article include:

• For now, computers are unable to break public-key encryption (such as RSA), but calculations that would take supercomputers 300 trillion years to break will take quantum computers only hours.
• When quantum computers are able to break public key cryptography, all data will be insecure. This “Q-Day” could lead to a huge wave of crimes involving theft of personal data, commandeering of internet-connected devices, damaging or destroying critical infrastructure, and more.
• Q-Day is likely within 10 years, but it’s still crucial to act on the threat now. It takes years to transfer data over to post-quantum encryption. Additionally, malicious actors can steal encrypted data now and decrypt it after Q-Day.
• The U.S. government has taken a variety of actions to combat the potential threat of quantum encryption, including the recent NIST choices of potential quantum cryptography algorithms, as well as the National Defense Authorization Act, which mandates evaluations of the quantum threat to national security systems.

Read Dave’s full article on HelpNetSecurity’s website here.