Quantum Computing

EXPERTS warn that a new kind of computer could literally “break the Internet” — leaving everything from state secrets to bank accounts at the mercy of criminals.

Quantum computers, currently under development at Google, IBM and other institutions around the world, could become the most powerful computers on the planet, speeding up processes such as drug discovery and even possibly preventing some cancers.

Rather than using “bits” of ones and zeroes to compute, quantum computers have “qubits” where the numbers can be one, zero or both at the same time — unlocking unheard-of processing power.

But this power comes with its dangers, warns David Mahdi, CSO and CISO advisor at cybersecurity company Sectigo.

Quantum computers, Mahdi said, “have so much processing power they will make the encryption we have today unfit for purpose in an instant. This means that all the world's data will no longer be secure — think of everything from bank account details to medical records to state secrets.”

All encryption systems rely on what’s known as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Normal computers need about 300 trillion years to break PKI — but a quantum computer would be able to do it in a week, Mahdi says. This would mean every piece of data on Earth is vulnerable, potentially triggering a “Quantum Apocalypse” or Q-Day where encryption on the internet suddenly becomes vulnerable to anyone with a quantum computer. Today’s quantum computers are still at an early stage, with the most powerful in the world, IBM’s Osprey, having just 400 qubits. (Millions or even billions of qubits are needed to break bank encryption.)

Mahdi says organizations can protect themselves by transitioning to new “quantum-safe” encryption, but companies need to start planning this now, or be caught in the Q-Day meltdown. Sectigo has said that “Q-Day” could come within 10 or 15 years.