By 2035, the UK cybersecurity agency is urging organizations to protect their systems from quantum hackers, as the prospects for a strong computing breakthrough threaten digital encryption.
The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has issued new guidance recommending large entities, including energy and transport providers, to introduce “post-Quantum encryption” to prevent quantum technology from infiltrating their systems.
NCSC warned that quantum computers, although still in development, pose a serious threat to encryption as they can solve complex mathematical problems that underpin public key cryptography. Quantum Computing’s ability to compute at incredible speeds is a major concern for encryption.
“Today’s encryption methods are used to protect everything from banking communication, but rely on mathematical problems that quantum computers could solve much faster, posing a threat to current encryption methods,” the agency stated.
NCSC recommends that large organizations, critical national infrastructure operators, and businesses with bespoke IT systems implement post-Quantum encryption to combat this threat.
Organizations must identify services that require upgrades by the 2028 deadline, undergo essential overhauls by 2031, and complete migration to a new cryptographic system by 2035 according to the guidance provided.
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Traditional computers use bits to represent information as 0 or 1, but quantum computers can simultaneously encode various combinations of 1 and 0, enabling them to perform much larger calculations at incredible speeds.
However, qubits, the building blocks of quantum computing, are highly sensitive to interference such as temperature changes and cosmic rays, hindering the development of large quantum computers despite significant investments. NCSC hopes its guidance will give organizations ample preparation for the future arrival of quantum computers.
“There is now a new way to encrypt public keys, making it prudent to act now rather than wait for the threat to materialize,” said Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Surrey.
Source: www.theguardian.com
