NIST takes steps to defend against future quantum computer threats
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology said it has chosen the first group of four encryption tools designed to withstand assaults from yet-to-be-created, more powerful quantum computers.
Gaithersburg, Maryland-based NIST, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, said such an assault “could potentially crack the security used to protect privacy in the digital systems we rely on every day,” including online banking and email software.
Quantum computers are machines that exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to solve mathematical problems that are difficult or intractable, according to NIST.
Although construction of a large-scale quantum computer would be complicated, it is now considered “merely a significant engineering challenge,” NIST said in an earlier statement.
NIST said in the statement Tuesday that encryption “uses math to protect sensitive electronic information, including secure websites and emails.
“Widely used public-key encryption systems rely on math problems that even the fastest conventional computers find intractable, ensuring these websites” are inaccessible to unwelcome third parties, it said.
However, “a sufficiently capable quantum computer … could solve these math problems quickly, defeating encryption systems,” it said.
NIST said the selection of the four encryption algorithms follows a six-year effort, and that another four are under consideration.
Both conventional and quantum computers should have difficulty solving the math problems upon which the four selected algorithms rely, NIST said, “thereby defending privacy both now and down the road.”
