São Paulo/SP – July 07, 2023 – The article “The uncertain future of cryptography and the internet as we know it”, discusses the possibility of advances in quantum technology and its impact on cryptography and internet security. It addresses the prospect that current encryption methods may be compromised in the future and highlights the importance of organizations being prepared to deal with this technological evolution.
*Raphael Ferreira
Currently, we live in a world where most communication takes place over the internet, using means that are practically inviolable. This is possible thanks to several techniques developed to preserve the integrity, availability and reliability of transmitted information.
However, this entire data security structure is based on cryptographic algorithms which assume that the calculation of the cryptographic keys used is extremely difficult. These algorithms are used both in Internet communications (RSA, AES, 3DES, etc.) and in validating the integrity of transmitted information, which can use the same concepts to validate public and private keys, for example.
In recent years, there has been a significant advance in technologies that miniaturize the security provided by these currently known methods, through the use of quantum processors to perform these calculations.
Unlike the conventional processors (architectures x64, x86, ARM, RISC, etc., which use bits, represented by the famous 1s and 0s), the quantum processors work with qubits. These qubits allow a binary operation, which would be performed in a single way on a conventional processor, to be performed in several different ways, taking advantage of the possibility of quantum superposition. This gives it a huge advantage for complex processing, such as cracking cryptographic keys.
Right now, well-funded criminal organizations and government agents are capturing all the communication traffic they have access to. They store all these TCP and UDP communications and packets in the hope that, in the near future, quantum processor technology will become more accessible, making it easy to decipher these captured transmissions. Currently, this technique is known as “Harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) or “Store now, decrypt later”.
with this technology at hand, attackers will be able to to access any information that has been transmitted and captured in this endeavor, including trade secrets, passwords, credentials and confidential information. Not even the guarantee offered by digital certificates, such as TLS/SSL, can be guaranteed, as an attacker could forge his own private and public key, acting in an untraceable way on behalf of your organization.
In this way, organizations and companies that are not prepared with an Information Security culture mature enough, who do not adopt password and access key rotation policies, and who are not aware of new technologies that may replace current cryptographic algorithms, will be totally vulnerable to these external agents.
Fortunately, there are already several researchers and mathematicians working on new algorithms that are more resistant to calculations performed by quantum computers. These algorithms can be applied to all communications as soon as they are ready and properly tested. Therefore, organizations and companies need to prepare to update their technologies as soon as these new algorithms become available.
*Raphael Ferreira is a Cyber Security Consultant at Safeway
How can we help?
SAFEWAY is an Information Security consulting company recognized by its clients for offering high added value solutions through projects that fully meet the needs of the business. In 15 years of experience, we have accumulated several successful projects that have earned us credibility and prominence among our clients, which largely constitute the 100 largest companies in Brazil.
Today through 25 strategic partnerships with global manufacturers and our SOC, SAFEWAY is considered one one stop shopping with the best technology, process and people solutions. SAFEWAY can help your organization with the implementation of an AI solution in a secure way. If you want more information, contact our experts!
