Post-quantum encryption is the hottest buzzword in the tech world. But, what is it, why is it needed, and when? Let’s dive in.
What is Encryption?
Put simply, encryption is the process of taking sensitive data and protecting it with one or two techniques or algorithms prior to being transferred or stored.
This means that the data cannot be understood or accessed by anyone other than the sender and the receiver, or any approved party who has the encryption key.
This is absolutely essential in a wide variety of sectors and applications. With sectors like finance or HR, the importance is obvious. But even entertainment services require robust encryption.
Take something like online casinos, for example. When players try their hand at internet bingo in the UK, they will need to create an account.
This account will contain personal information, such as their name, age, and address, as well as card payment information for deposits and withdrawals, and any ID that was processed during verification processes.
With this in mind, having suitable encryption ensures that players’ data is protected. Perhaps the most popular encryption methods for internet bingo platforms such as this are Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), which protect players’ card payment details during transactions.
Issues With Quantum Processing
With traditional encryption methods like AES in the US, data is scrambled using an algorithm, multiplying characters so that they become a random string of numbers.
These encryption methods are efficient and lightweight, and can be achieved quickly, and are reliable when it comes to the likelihood of hackers breaking the code on traditional computers. That said, the computers of the future are likely to have exponentially more processing power, thanks to the introduction of quantum computing.
The Google Willow quantum computer chip, for example, is theoretically able to solve a complex problem in five minutes that would take an average supercomputer millions of years.
A quantum processing unit from China, Zuchongzhi 3.0, which is comparable to the Willow was found to perform 1 quadrillion times faster than supercomputers, and 1 million times faster than Google’s Sycamore chip. The same task undertaken by the Zuchongzhi unit would take 5.9 billion years using a supercomputer.
This raises an issue, then. How do we protect data from quantum encryption, which may be available in the future?
Post-Quantum Encryption
Quantum computing is able to work so fast because it computes the bits – that’s the 1s and 0s – at the same time, rather than separately like normal computers.
Post-quantum encryption, then, needs to encrypt data in a way that it will be less vulnerable to hacking or other cyberattacks.
This has led to post-quantum encryption becoming a buzz word as of late, with many VPNs, data centers, and more claiming to use algorithms that won’t succumb to attacks from quantum computers.
That said, it is important to note that the widespread nature is merely theoretical at this time, and no encryption has been tested against quantum computers. But it is not as irrelevant as it might seem.
The development of post-quantum encryptions now is a way of future proofing security, laying the groundwork to be built upon later. As for their effectiveness, this will take time and testing in the future.