A little-known UK company called Arqit is quietly preparing businesses and governments for what it sees as hackers' next big target: quantum computers.
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It's still an incredibly new area of research, but some in the tech industry — including Google, Microsoft, and IBM — believe that quantum computing will become a reality within the next decade. And that could be worrying news for organizations' cybersecurity.
David Williams, co-founder and president of Arqit, says quantum computers will be several million times faster than classical computers and could break into one of the most widely used cryptography methods.
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Last month saw a slew of devastating ransomware attacks on organizations ranging from Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the US, to JBS, the world's largest meatpacking company.
Microsoft and several U.S. government agencies, meanwhile, were among those hit by the attack on IT company SolarWinds. President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order aimed at boosting U.S. cyber defenses.
What is quantum computing?
Quantum computing aims to apply the principles of quantum physics – a body of science that seeks to describe the world at the level of atoms and subatomic particles – to computers.
While today's computers use 1s and 0s to store information, a quantum computer relies on quantum bits, or qubits, which can be a combination of 0s and 1s at the same time, something known in the field as "superposition." These qubits can also be connected to each other through a phenomenon called "superposition.".
Simply put, this means that quantum computers are much more powerful than today's computers and are able to solve complex calculations much faster.
Kasper Rasmussen, associate professor of computer science at the University of Oxford, told CNBC that quantum computers are designed to do "specific very specific functions much faster than classical computers.".
Some experts say it will take some time for quantum computers to finally be deployed in a way that could pose a threat to existing cyber defenses.
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The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking to update its standards on cryptography to include what is known as post-quantum cryptography, algorithms that could be secure against attacks on quantum computers.
Ali Kaafarani, CEO of cybersecurity start-up PQShield, expects NIST to decide on new standards by the end of 2021. However, he cautions: “For me, the challenge is not the quantum threat and how can we build secure encryption. We solved that.”
“The challenge now is how businesses will prepare for the transition to the new standards,” said Kaafarani.
Information source: cnbc.com
