With the ongoing global threat of unauthorised accumulation of encrypted data with the hope of eventually being able to break into it later, there is the real possibility that a large quantum computer could eventually fall into the wrong hands. This day will likely see current encryption systems fall like a house of cards.
This is a dire scenario and companies and governments are starting to realise this. “Every day of waiting to roll out new systems is a day of data lost,” says Tanja Lange of the Eindhoven University of Technology. For the past three years, Lange has been running a EUR 4 million project to develop cryptology that can resist the power of quantum computers. And whilst the consortium has made tremendous advances that single companies can already use, there is a growing risk that end-users do not have access to post-quantum cryptography by the time a big quantum computer is built.
Further details: Achieving post-quantum cryptography before it’s too late