How will identity security work in a post-quantum world?

Two years ago, Think Digital Partners reported on the threat that a working quantum computer would pose to traditional cryptographic methods that are used to secure public sector records and secrets. Why? Because quantum computing can reduce the time taken to calculate all possible permutations of a cryptograph from millennia to seconds.

Three months ago, Microsoft announced major advancements in its quantum computing chip and predicted that we are just three years away from seeing a working quantum computer.

 How much faster is quantum computing?

Google used 53 functional qubits to complete a specialised computational task in 200 seconds and estimated an equivalent classical computation would take 10,000 years.

These experiments do not show that today’s quantum systems can break deployed encryption, but they do demonstrate the potential of the technology.

 Harvest now, decrypt later

Some threat actors are caching stolen, encrypted communications, databases and archives in the hope of decrypting them once cryptographically-relevant quantum computing (CRQC) becomes available. The UK government’s National Cyber Security Centre advises, “This means that for organisations that need to provide long-term cryptographic protection of very high-value data, the possibility of a CRQC in the future is a relevant threat now.”