网络安全行业紧盯量子计算革命.docVIP

It is an inevitability that cryptographers dread: the arrival of powerful quantum computers that can break the security of the Internet. Although these devices are thought to be a decade or more away, researchers are adamant that preparations must begin now. Computer-security specialists are meeting in Germany this week to discuss quantum-resistant replacements for today’s cryptographic systems — the protocols used to scramble and protect private information as it traverses the web and other digital networks. Although today’s hackers can, and often do, steal private information by guessing passwords, impersonating authorized users or installing malicious software on computer networks, existing computers are unable to crack standard forms of encryption used to send sensitive data over the Internet. But on the day that the first large?quantum computer?comes online, some widespread and crucial encryption methods will be rendered obsolete. Quantum computers exploit?laws?that govern subatomic particles, so they could easily defeat existing encryption methods. “I’m genuinely worried we’re not going to be ready in time,” says Michele Mosca, co-founder of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo in Canada and chief executive of evolutionQ, a cyber-security consulting company. It will take years for governments and industry to settle on quantum-safe replacements for today’s encryption methods. Any proposed replacement — even if it seems impregnable at first — must withstand multitudes of real and theoretical challenges before it is considered reliable enough to protect the transfer of intellectual property, financial data and state secrets. “To trust a cryptosystem, you need a lot of people to scrutinize it and try to devise attacks on it and see if it has any flaws,” says Stephen Jordan, a physicist at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. “That takes a long time.” This week’s workshop, held at