Quantum Safe Cryptography: A Buzzword Or Something More Serious? - Suketu

The industry is abuzz with the words Quantum Computers and Quantum Safe Cryptography being plastered everywhere. What actually is going on here? Are Quantum Computers really going to cause havoc? Will Quantum Computers be a real threat some day? Algorithms that make use of Quantum Physics have already been developed that will have real world repercussions on cryptography we use today. NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), a well known body within cyber security has just released a set of standardised Quantum Safe Cryptographic algorithms. Something that has taken them years of study (8 years infact) to ensure that the algorithms cannot be easily broken or private data and keys decrypted easily. Well, what does that mean in general, and what does it mean for you? The word Quantum might be used to generate the hype, but the real underlying issue is the integration of cryptography just about everywhere. Cryptography is embedded in our devices, in our routers and networking, in servers, in hardware, in containers, in firewalls, in file-transfer software, and anywhere else you can think of. Digital Certificates help lay the foundations of secure communications everywhere. Cryptography is a fundamental control used to protect confidentiality and integrity. The real issue lies in the effective migration of cryptography, and in a timescale that ensures protection against an ever-looming threat.