Communications of the ACM
RAND Study Advocates 'Postquantum Cryptography'
Government think tank RAND Corp. says a coordinated, long-term approach is needed to confront the "retroactive risk" to secure communications posed by quantum computing.
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A coordinated, long-term approach is needed to confront the "retroactive risk" to secure communications posed by quantum computing, warns a new report emphasizing that code-breaking applications based on quantum technologies could emerge by as early as the next decade.
The report released Thursday (April 9) by the RAND Corp., the government-backed think tank, asserts that current encryption schemes will likely prove inadequate as quantum computing moves into the mainstream. Those risks underscore the need for what the report calls "postquantum cryptography," or PQC, to fend off future threats to highly-secured communications.
"We judge the threat to be urgent," the report warns. "There is little to no margin of safety for beginning the migration to PQC. The vulnerability presented by quantum computers will affect every government body, critical infrastructure and industry sector."
"The advent of quantum computers presents retroactive risk because information being securely communicated today without postquantum cryptography may be captured and held by others now in order to be decrypted and revealed later once quantum computers are created," said Evan Peet, a co-author of the report and a RAND economist.
From HPC Wire
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