How quantum computing will create opportunities for improved cybersecurity?

Quantum computing is emerging as a subfield of quantum information science. This technology has already started attracting interest from researchers and technology companies with almost feverish excitement and activity. Companies have even begun racing to achieve quantum supremacy. In 2019, Google officially announced that it achieved quantum supremacy. Quantum computing promises great potential in diverse areas, including medical research, financial modeling, traffic optimization, artificial intelligence, weather forecasting, and more.

Quantum computing can be a ground-breaking technology for cybersecurity, enabling companies to improve their cybersecurity strategies. It will help detect and deflect quantum computing-based attacks before they cause harm to groups and individuals.

Quantum Cybersecurity

Quantum cybersecurity is the field of study of all aspects affecting the security and privacy of communications and computations owing to the development of quantum technologies. Quantum computers are likely to solve problems that cannot be done by traditional computers, such as solving the algorithms behind encryption keys that safeguard data and the internet's infrastructure. Moreover, as most of today's encryption relies heavily on mathematical formulas that would take impractically much time to decode using today's computers, a quantum computer can easily factor those formulas and break the code.

Over 20 years ago, Peter Shor, an MIT professor of applied mathematics, developed a quantum algorithm that could easily factor large numbers far more quickly than a conventional computer. Since then, scientists have been working on developing quantum computers that can break asymmetric encryption.

The development of large quantum computers could have calamitous consequences for cybersecurity. In this context, thinking quantum cybersecurity solutions will be an advantageous edge. Quantum cybersecurity can pave more robust and compelling opportunities for the security of critical and personal data. It will particularly be useful in quantum machine learning and quantum random number generation, as noted by IBM.

The pace of quantum research undoubtedly continues to accelerate in the years ahead. But it will also pose challenges and vulnerabilities to mission-critical information needed to retain its secrecy. Adapting to advanced cryptography to address these threats could be an obvious solution. The quantum cryptography approach is based on creating algorithms that are hard to break even for quantum computers. This approach can also work with conventional computers.

Another security approach against quantum computing attacks is lattice-based cryptography. Conventional cryptographic algorithms can be replaced with lattice-based algorithms that are designed with proven security. These new algorithms can conceal data inside complex math problems called lattices. Google already has begun testing post-quantum cryptography methods that integrate lattice-based algorithms. According to IBM researcher Cecilia Boschini, lattice-based cryptography will prevent future quantum computing-based attacks and form a basis for Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) that makes it possible for users to perform calculations on a file without seeing the data or revealing it to hackers. The NSA, NIST, and other governmental agencies are also starting to invest in this developing method.

Moreover, according to a Forbes article, quantum computing can transform cybersecurity in four areas: quantum random number generation is fundamental to cryptography; quantum-secure communications, specifically quantum key distribution (QKD); post-quantum cryptography, and quantum machine learning.