Post-Quantum Cryptography to Replace Public Key Encryption

According to a report by the research firm PreScouter, the growth of quantum computers over the next ten years will usher in a new era of security, and public key encryption methods like RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) and ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) will be taken to a higher level. Open-source encryption will be replaced by post-quantum cryptography, which will be able to handle new tasks.

The report, titled “Quantum Computing and Cybersecurity: Preparing for Post-Quantum Cryptography”, states that the global quantum computing market will grow from $472 million in 2021 to $1.76 billion by 2026. As the technology moves from research labs to the cloud, the likelihood of its use in encryption increases. Moreover, the Biden administration recently issued two directives to prepare the U.S. government and businesses for future quantum cyberattacks.

“Currently, hackers are unlikely to have the resources to develop quantum computing systems,” the PreScouter report notes. “The emergence of general-purpose quantum computing will be available in the cloud as an infrastructure platform, making such methods accessible to a wide range of users with modern technological capabilities,” the report adds.

Experts have been working on post-quantum cryptography for many years, including the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In the United States, NIST began its post-quantum efforts back in 2016.

It was previously reported that Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the ANU Quantum Numbers (AQN) quantum random number generator on its platform.