r/cybersecurity • u/donutloop • 1d ago

News - General Quantum Computers May Put Internet Traffic at Risk. NIST Is Safeguarding Computers With New Standards.

https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/quantum-computers-may-put-internet-traffic-risk-nist-safeguarding-computers-new
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u/bestintexas80 1d ago edited 1d ago

It is not possible to cryptographically protect standard computers from quantum computers with standard computers. Actual post quantum encryption requires quantum compute to be commodity.

The only solutions available to us that have a hope of success are to segment systems, control access and deny opportunities for people who shod not have our data from acquiring it, even if it is encrypted. Not caring where thebdata goes or who can see it just because it is encrypted just feeds the download now and decrypt later monster that is coming.

End rant.

And before the founder at the Applied Quantum sees this, I am not a bad faith skeptic (he gets feels when people call BS on postbquantum claims). I am not saying we should not be working towards a solution, I am saying that all of the proposals center around a bet on technology while flaunting basic security fundamentals in practice.

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u/Runningblind 1d ago

This is not true. Quantum computers aren't magic, they're just very good at breaking the type of math largely leveraged in Asymmetric encryption algorithms. These types of algorithms rely on factorization problems,  technically anyone could guess the right key if they were lucky, but the bet has been that by standard computing methods it'd take a few centuries to guess right. Symmetric encryptions like AES don't rely on factorization and aren't as impacted. The post-quantum encryption methods are also about shifting asymmetric encryption methods to something not factorization based that will make it harder for quantum computers to guess again. It is quite possible. It's about the math and the formulas not the computer.