{"id":66667,"date":"2025-05-01T21:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T21:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/66667\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T21:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T21:15:09","slug":"quantum-computer-threat-spurring-quiet-overhaul-of-internet-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/66667\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantum computer threat spurring quiet overhaul of internet security"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 <\/strong>Cryptography experts say the race to fend off future quantum-computer attacks has entered a decisive but measured phase, with companies quietly replacing the internet plumbing that the majority of the industry once considered unbreakable.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Cloudflare\u2019s Trust Forward Summit on Wednesday, encryption leaders at IBM Research, Amazon Web Services and Cloudflare outlined how organizations are refitting cryptographic tools that safeguard online banking, medical data and government communications. The aim is to stay ahead of quantum machines that, once powerful enough, could decode the math protecting today\u2019s digital traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the next five to 10 years you\u2019re going to see a Cambrian explosion of different cryptographic systems,\u201d said Wesley Evans, a product manager for Cloudflare\u2019s research team, referring to an evolutionary period with a rapid diversification of animal life that occurred roughly 540 million years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s nationalized cryptography out of South Korea [or] new standards from [the National Institute of Standards and Technology], this is a time to think about not just, \u2018how am I doing my post-quantum migration?\u2019 but \u2018how am I doing my whole crypto-agility platform?\u2019 and \u2018how am I thinking through my audits and inventory?\u2019\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHarvest-now, decrypt-later\u201d attacks already target data that must remain secret for decades, panelists said. Adversaries are stealing data like encrypted medical records or defense contracts and storing it on cheap cloud servers in hopes of unlocking them once quantum code-breaking matures.<\/p>\n

Cloudflare, which routes roughly 20% of global web traffic, said it has spent eight years weaving post-quantum algorithms into its backbone. The company now secures more than 40% of its daily HTTPS requests with so-called hybrid handshakes that combine traditional RSA keys and newer lattice-based methods.<\/p>\n

Executives described the rollout as intentionally low-profile. \u201cTrillions of requests per day are already running across Cloudflare\u2019s network in a post-quantum secure manner,\u201d Evans said. \u201cWe did it without users noticing a speed decrease, performance impact or incurring any additional cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

IBM researchers, who develop quantum hardware as well as defensive tools, cautioned that this change could possibly take a decade before it\u2019s the norm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving to a new generation of cryptography, quantum-safe or otherwise, will take us roughly seven to 10 years, maybe longer,\u201d said John Buselli, a business development executive and offering manager for IBM Quantum Safe, additionally pointing out that relics of older code, such as SHA-1, linger long after formal retirement.<\/p>\n

NIST is finalizing a first batch of post-quantum algorithms<\/a>, including the key-encapsulation mechanism known as ML-KEM<\/a>. Cloudflare and browser makers have already adopted preliminary versions<\/a> while awaiting NIST\u2019s final parameters. Developers also wrap new keys inside legacy RSA exchanges to guard against unforeseen side-channel flaws.<\/p>\n

Beyond mathematics, panelists emphasized logistics. Enterprises must inventory where encryption lives, from custom apps to vendor appliances, then gauge how quickly each layer can swap libraries. Much of that code is \u201cblack box,\u201d owned by suppliers that set their own schedules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rate of change is going to be determined by the least agile piece of infrastructure you have,\u201d Buselli said, likening the process to mapping out all the connections in an infrastructure upgrade instead of addressing just a single security issue.<\/p>\n

The panel also urged companies to fold cryptography into broader modernization budgets. Boards may balk at paying solely for an invisible security upgrade, they said, but will authorize spending tied to performance gains such as those seen with the newest TLS 1.3 protocol.<\/p>\n

No panelist offered a firm deadline for full retirement of RSA and elliptic-curve keys. Instead they described \u201ca long journey\u201d marked by quiet iterations and cooperative testing across browsers, servers and chipmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cCryptography is a multi-party game,\u201d Evans said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to work with everybody to make sure it\u2019s secure for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Greg<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by Greg Otto
\n\t\t\tGreg Otto is Editor-in-Chief of CyberScoop, overseeing all editorial content for the website. Greg has led cybersecurity coverage that has won various awards, including accolades from the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Prior to joining Scoop News Group, Greg worked for the Washington Business Journal, U.S. News & World Report and WTOP Radio. He has a degree in broadcast journalism from Temple University.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Cryptography experts say the race to fend off future quantum-computer attacks has entered a decisive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3161],"tags":[33868,33869,3772,3082,33870,33871,3358,33872,53,16,15],"class_list":["post-66667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-internet","tag-amazon-web-services-aws","tag-cloudflare","tag-ibm","tag-internet","tag-nist","tag-post-quantum-cryptography","tag-quantum-computing","tag-rsac-2025-conference","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114434652794710455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}