Quantum Computing Threat to Existing Encryption Algorithms Starts to Get Real

(BarracudaBlog) Mike Vizard’s blog provides an extensive analysis of the threat quantum computing poses to enterprise systems and his message is in the concluding paragraph: It may not be precisely clear when quantum computers will be faster than existing conventional systems, but it is apparent it’s now just a matter of time before quantum computers attain a level of performance that renders many existing encryption platforms obsolete. The challenge cybersecurity teams will encounter is that most business leaders are completely unprepared to have this conversation. In many of their minds, the enterprise applications they have in place should not have to be replaced or significantly upgraded for five years or more. The time to clue business leaders into the new cybersecurity realities of quantum computing is clearly now.
There are encryption algorithms that are resistant to quantum computers. The problem is that most of the encryption schemes that have been employed in legacy applications today, such as AES, RSA or ECDSA, are not likely to be able to stand up to the massive amount of compute power that is going to be soon available. Organizations will either need to replace the encryption technologies employed in those legacy applications or replace those applications altogether.