Chinese hackers are likely to target heavily encrypted data sets, such as weapon designs or details of secret information, with the aim of unlocking them later, when quantum computing makes decryption possible, warns a report.
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Analysts at Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm, say Chinese hackers could also steal pharmaceutical, chemical and scientific research materials that can be processed by quantum computers, machines capable of crunching numbers at unprecedented speed.
In a report titled “Chinese threats in the quantum era,” the company says encrypted data could be stolen by “Chinese hacking groups.” It says quantum-assisted decryption will arrive faster than quantum-assisted encryption, giving hackers an advantage.
“Chinese state-aligned cyber hackers” will begin stealing or intercepting encrypted data that was previously unusable.
However, he adds that there is a «very small» chance that quantum computing could break the most recent encryption methods before 2030. Analysts say that the advantages of quantum computing over classical computing, which is used in everything right now, from laptops to mobile phones, are at least a decade away.
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“Although the current capabilities of quantum computers are more demonstrative than immediately useful, their trajectory suggests that in the coming decades quantum computers will likely revolutionize many industries – from pharmaceuticals to materials science – and eventually undermine all popular current public-key encryption methods,” the report says.
Quantum computing is considered an exciting development. For example, experts say it could accurately predict what a complex molecule can do and thus open the way for new drugs and materials.
China , and Booz Allen Hamilton says the country is expected to surpass Europe and the US, where IBM recently built the most powerful quantum processor, in research and development related to quantum computing.
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