Quantum computers are on their way to surpassing their classical computer counterparts in practical applications. When this happens the bulk of the world's cryptography is rendered null and void. It's time to ensure you are ready for the new era, says DigiCert.
DigiCert has been increasingly speaking about Quantum readiness and crypto agility. While movies like the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Ant-Man use the word 'quantum' as a hand wave to explain all kinds of phenomena, quantum computers are real things, and quantum readiness is a serious concern.
Quantum dates back to Max Planck (pictured) and his Planck's law of 1900 which says different atoms and molecules can emit or absorb energy in discrete quantities only. The smallest amount of energy that can be emitted or absorbed in the form of electromagnetic radiation is known as quantum.
The reality is quantum physics governs everything that's very small or very cold and has a reputation for being spooky, mysterious, magical, arcane. However, quantum computing is here, now, and advancing rapidly. DigiCert is on a mission to ensure organisations of all sizes, of all kinds, everywhere on the planet, understand what this means.
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DigiCert is all about reputation, trust, identity, and security. It provides certificates that validate the web site you are using is genuine; it provides all kinds of security mechanisms to ensure trust within applications you use daily, between servers and networks, and all throughout your business and across the Internet.
Whenever you text your friends, transfer money to or from your bank, or read a web page, you want that information to be private and unbreachable by malicious forces. You want confidence and trust in the sites and applications you use.
I'm sure you want it to stay that way. The building blocks of all this trust, all this security, is cryptography - encoding messages through keys that cloak information in a mathematical protective casing.
These algorithms, like RSA - named after its founders Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman - have stood the test of time since the 1970s. They use mathematics so tough that any attempt to brute-force the numbers would take a supecomputer more years to break than you will live for.
Well, until now. And this is the message DigiCert desperately wants you to understand.
The truth is large-scale quantum computers can solve certain maths problems quickly, and one of these is cryptography. RSA will be obsolete; other cryptography mechanisms will be obsolete. They will be trivial to brute-force in a quantum computer.
It's thus time for a new era, an era that DigiCert refers to as crypto agility where a variety of different algorithms are used, new quantum cryptography algorithms.
This is the basis for DigiCert's World Qantum Readiness Day, an event it hosted, opened by DigiCert CEO Amit Sinha.
"You don't need to understand quantum mechanics to understand quantum readiness," Sinha said, kicking off the event with a firesade chat with American mathematician Peter Shor on what a post-quantum world looks like. Shor is famous in mathematical circles for Shor's algorithm, a quantum algorithm that factors exponentially faster than the best currently-known algorithm running on a classical computer.
And, in case there are quantum deniers among us, the very fact Shor's algorithm exists, and is tested and proven, shows quantum computing is already among us. Yes, maybe not mainstream, maybe still expensive, but it is only a matter of time before it is commonplace. And that means you need to be getting ready - not thinking about getting ready, not planning to get ready one day in the future, but getting ready now.
DigiCert refer to "Q Day" as the moment in time that is ahead of us, when quantum computers surpass classical counterparts in practical applications. Yeah - you thought Y2K was a fizzer? Well, Q Day really has the potential to break the Internet.
Q Day is coming, and during the Readiness Day talks, Amit Sinha introduced the audience to Dr. Taher Elgamal and John Furrier for a brief conversation about the current state of adoption of quantum-safe cryptographic methods.
Experts took to the stage to discuss the critical need to modernise cryptography in anticipation of quantum threats and to discuss strategies for updating and strengthening cryptographic systems to be quantum resistant.
Experts further discussed practical approaches to securing data against quantum threats, ensuring long-term protection, and maintaining compliance.
DigiCert wrapped up World Quantum Readiness Day announcing the winner of its first annual Quantum Readiness Day award, for the organisation leading the charge on quantum preparedness. That winner was Cloudflare, who states its mission is to build a better, safer Internet.
In fact, with prescience, Cloudflare began its preparation in 2017 and had fully implemented advanced algorithms across its servide line by 2022. "In addition," DigiCert said, "CloudFlare is a model citizen, establishing a dedicated quantum readiness team and working with the global community to bring standardisation and awareness across the board."
Further, Cloudflare committed itself to make post-quantum cryptography free, forever, during the 2023 Summit for Democracy. The company has made significant open source contributions on this.
Qantum is a fun word; for many non-mathematicians, non-scientists, it's something mysterious, and it's the stuff of science fiction. Yet, quantum mechanics, quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and quantum algorithms are progressing rapidly. Research continues, and it is well known that quantum computing effortlessly solves problems that were tough and computationally demanding for today's so-called classical computers. These problems include breaking encryption algorithms in trivial timeframes.
Conventional cryptography is a ticking time bomb if you depend upon it for security, privacy, and trust. DigiCert is striving to make this clear to the world and World Quantum Readiness Day is but one of its efforts to achieve this.
If you value your data and that of your company and its users you will be taking quantum algorithms seriously. A key takeaway from Quantum Readiness Day are three practical steps that any IT or business leader can perform right now.
First, make an inventory of where you use encryption or digital trust. What applications? What devices? What certificates? What web sites?
Second, experiment early. You don't know in advance the problems you will hit.
Third, talk to your vendors. Ensure they're on the post quantum journey with you.
The event ended on the sage point every company should be having quantum readiness on their list of priorities so they are ready for the coming day when quantum computing will overtake classical computing and cryptography. Are you?
Further resources - whitepapers
- The evolution of digital business dictates a modern crypto landscape
- Modernise your PKI for security, efficiency and agility
Further resources - webinars
- Trust lifecycle manager webinar - managing digital trust in the modern enterprise
- Securing the Digital Future webinar: Automation and Crypto-Agility for a Quantum-Safe Enterprise
Further resources - iTWire coverage
Image credit: Hugo Erfurth - This file was derived from: Max Planck by Hugo Erfurth 1938cr.jpg
Original source: https://www.dhm.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/max-planck, Public Domain, Link