Several ‘Simple’ Things Organizations Can Do to Prepare ‘Crypto Break’ from Quantum Computing

(IT.Web) Roger Grimes, Data-Driven Defence evangelist at KnowBe4, says that there are several simple things organisations could be doing to prepare for the ‘crypto break’ from quantum computing that won’t cost a fortune either.
Grimes says businesses can start doing right now that don’t cost a fortune or involve ripping and replacing old ciphers with quantum-resistant ones. “The first step is to take a data-protection inventory to work out what is critical and what needs to be protected beyond the next few years. Look at the cryptography that is currently being used to protect it, the algorithms involved, and the key sizes. This means public key ciphers, symmetric ciphers, digital signatures, hashes, and key sizes.” This is an onerous task, so get started and do it now, advises Grimes.
Next, he says, ensure that all symmetric keys and hashes are 256-bit or larger. “Increase the key sizes of anything smaller, and increase asymmetric key sizes to 4096-bit. When the crypto break happens, it will break all traditional public key crypto, but the smaller key crypto will be the first to fall and will fall fastest.”
Then Grimes says to take all the most critical data that is needed in the long term offline. Operate on the premise that attackers will try to sniff your network traffic and bypass your existing cryptography.
Businesses should also start thinking about using quantum random number generators if they need random number generators.