EP164: The Urgent Threat of Quantum Computing & How Post-Quantum Cryptography Protects Us 🔐

Guest:


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Jennifer Fernick (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferfernick/) , Senor Staff Security Engineer and UTL, Google



Topics:


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Since one of us (!) doesn't have a PhD in quantum mechanics, could you explain what a quantum computer is and how do we know they are on a credible path towards being real threats to cryptography? How soon do we need to worry about this one?


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We've heard that quantum computers are more of a threat to asymmetric/public key crypto than symmetric crypto. First off, why? And second, what does this difference mean for defenders?


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Why (how) are we sure this is coming? Are we mitigating a threat that is perennially 10 years ahead and then vanishes due to some other broad technology change?


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What is a post-quantum algorithm anyway? If we're baking new key exchange crypto into our systems, how confident are we that we are going to be resistant to both quantum and traditional cryptanalysis?


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Why does NIST think it's time to be doing the PQC thing now? Where is the rest of the industry on this evolution?


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How can a person tell the difference here between reality and snakeoil? I think Anton and I both responded to your initial email with a heavy dose of skepticism, and probably more skepticism than it deserved, so you get the rare on-air apology from both of us!



Resources:


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Securing tomorrow today: Why Google now protects its internal communications from quantum threats (https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/why-google-now-uses-post-quantum-cryptography-for-internal-comms)


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How Google is preparing for a post-quantum world (https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/how-google-is-preparing-for-a-post-quantum-world)


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NIST PQC standards (https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/post-quantum-cryptography)


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PQ Crypto conferences (https://pqcrypto.org/conferences.html)


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"Quantum Computation & Quantum Information" by Nielsen & Chuang (https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Computation-Information-Anniversary-1998-07-01/dp/B01JO0NRQA) book


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"Quantum Computing Since Democritus" by Scott Aaronson (https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Computing-since-Democritus-Aaronson/dp/0521199565) book


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EP154 Mike Schiffman: from Blueboxing to LLMs via Network Security at Google (https://cloud.withgoogle.com/cloudsecurity/podcast/ep154-mike-schiffman-from-blueboxing-to-llms-via-network-security-at-google/)