Quantum computing and cyber security: “Get your hands dirty!”

Current widely deployed standards for cryptographic security are expected to be broken by quantum computers before 2050. Secure and reliable electronic payments rely heavily on these standards. Therefore the Dutch Payments Association, the Dutch Banking Association, Dutch banks, Quantum.Amsterdam, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica and several other public and private organizations together are already getting ready to deal with the future challenges of quantum computing.

Last month (March 2021) the Dutch Payments Association and Quantum.Amsterdam organized an online symposium, with ten experts on quantum computing and post-quantum cryptography and about 200 attendees that are professionally involved in the preparations of their organizations for the quantum era. One of the major outcomes of the symposium: “Get your hands dirty!”

Post-quantum cryptography

For several decades scientists and businesses have been working on profoundly different and new computers, so called quantum computers. With a fully functional quantum computer, some complex problems that currently cannot be feasibly solved with even the most powerful traditional supercomputers, can eventually be solved relatively quickly.

Reliable and useful quantum computers are expected to become available within the next three decades. Strong cryptographic keys and algorithms that rely on currently ‘unsolvable’ problems will no longer be secure when that happens. In due time, they must be replaced with ‘post-quantum cryptography’ (PQC) that is immune to the powerful capabilities of quantum computers.

“For the Dutch payment industry, the quantum adventure began in 2015,” says Gijs Boudewijn, general director of the Dutch Payments Association. “That year the Dutch secret service told us about something mystical, the quantum computer and its possible impact on cyber security. Ever since, our association and its members keep track of quantum developments and regularly meet with experts to prepare for the quantum future.”

Data today must remain secure tomorrow

Many encryption algorithms that we use today to ensure the integrity and authenticity of messages, do not qualify for the upcoming quantum computer era. However, the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of today’s data, messages and transactions may still be necessary in a few decades. Therefore we must select and deploy quantum resistant encryption algorithms now.

Oscar Covers, cyber security analyst and quantum enthusiast at the Dutch Payments Association notes that “an entire scientific community is developing PQC algorithms that we can already use today and that are resistant to tomorrow’s quantum computers.”

Post-quantum cryptography is functionally equivalent to traditional cryptography but is built on various alternate mathematical platforms. Furthermore, these alternate platforms may require more (traditional) resources, such as more computing power or bandwidth or speed to setup connections. Fortunately, some existing encryption algorithms are already quantum resistant and can be used to reengineer existing security protocols.

This is not the biggest or most costly challenge we face today. We just need to get started and “get our hands dirty” with post-quantum cryptography.