#Internet iceberg encryption how to
#Internet iceberg encryption portable

“This isn’t something that is some futurist, sci-fi kind of thing that I don’t have to worry about for 20 years,” stressed Tony Uttley, president of quantum technology firm Quantinuum. Meanwhile, the sheer number of top government agencies, tech giants and even banks looking into quantum security highlights just how high the stakes have become of late. 4īoth methods show promise, though neither has proven a panacea yet. Then there is a potential Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), which uses quantum physics to securely transfer a key between two end points. First, researchers are working on new ‘quantum-safe’ encryption methods, with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), evaluating 69 potential methods of ‘post-quantum cryptography’, or PQC.

Several options are reportedly showing promise. With a quantum leap drawing nearer, security experts are scrambling to stay one step ahead. In a worrying sign for Washington, it’s Beijing that’s said to have the edge so far. The first to create a true quantum supercomputer will wield a huge, if not overwhelming, cyber advantage, military analysts warn. Meanwhile, both the US and China are locked into a 21st century quantum arms race of sorts, too. Other firms like AI pioneer, IBM, are hot on its heels. The internet giant recently spun off its quantum enterprise unit, called Sandbox, with notable financial backing from former Google CEO, Erik Schmidt, and Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff. In 2019, for instance, Google announced it had achieved so-called ‘quantum supremacy’, when its Sycamore machine performed a task in two minutes that would have taken the world’s fastest supercomputer over 10,000 hours.

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Current quantum computers, which look more like futuristic chandeliers draped in gold rather than our trusty portable laptops, are still years away from being able to ‘break’ the internet. The internet as we know it now may simply cease to exist. If powerful enough, it could be used to hack government systems, shut down power grids, clear bank accounts, erase bitcoin wallets, and spark financial chaos. The nightmare scenario is a quantum supercomputer falling into the hands of a rogue state or bad actor.

#Internet iceberg encryption how to

How to think of this non-linear, exponential shift? If you imagine conventional computers being a horse and cart, one specialist recently explained, then a quantum computer is “more like a sports car – a huge leap forward.” 2 This enables them to do millions of trial-and-error calculations at once what might have taken an ordinary computer weeks, or even years, a quantum computer could do in seconds. Whereas traditional computers store data in binary ‘bits’ (like ones and zeroes) and function by creating and then storing long strings of these bits, quantum computers ‘qubits’ (quantum bits) can do both simultaneously. Market Size of Quantum Computing, 2020-2030īut all this could change with the rise of quantum computers. Source: Statista Digital Economy Compass 2021, Projected Worldwide