- The new research estimates that it could be 20 times easier for quantum computers to break the current encryption
- Experts urge software developers to advance their work in the development of new generation cryptography
- The recommendations include vulnerable systems are obsolete after 2030 and prohibited after 2035
Experts have long warned that the calculation power of quantum machines is ready to make current encryption methods obsolete. New research now estimates that it could be 20 times easier for quantum computers to break RSA encryption.
This is why Google Quantum AI researchers urge software developers and encryption experts to start implementing new generation cryptography. They also recommend that all vulnerable systems be obsolete after 2030 and refused after 2035.
However, many in the industry have already started their post-quantum transitions. These include technology giants like Microsoft, which recently created its latest popular popular services, as well as popular encrypted services such as the best VPN and secure messaging applications.
Rupture encryption can be 20 times easier
Encryption is a technology that software uses to blur information in an illegible form to prevent unauthorized access. Developed at the end of the 1970s, the exchange of keys based on RSA is the most common technique, which consists in generating two public keys – a encryption key and a decryption key.
Quantum computers are defined to break RSA techniques, however, because these machines can run calculations that today’s computers cannot manage, in a few minutes.
As main researchers, noted Craig Gidney in the article, the new research considerably reduces its previous estimate of resources that a quantum computer may need to break RSA encryption. From 20 million quibits (the equivalent of a little in conventional computer) to only 1 million baffles.
“I hope this provides a sign for the current state of art in quantum factoring, and informs speed Gidney.
Gidney has also echoed the suggestion from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that vulnerable systems should all be depreciated in five years.
“Not because I expect that sufficiently large quantum computers exist by 2030, but because I prefer that security does not depend on progress,” he wrote.
However, Gidney’s revelations are not a cold shower for industry.
For example, the team behind the encrypted emails and the Cloud Drive Tuta began working on quantum resistant encryption in 2020, becoming the first quantum resistant messaging service with a hybrid protocol in 2024.
“Google’s breakthrough in quantum IT proves what we, in Tuta Mail, has already believed for years: the delay during which our currently encrypted data can always be considered secure could be much shorter than what we expect,” Tuta CEO, Matthias Pfau, Techradar said.
For NordVPN, which recently expanded post-quantum (PQE) encryption to all applications, it is obvious. “The transition from classic cryptography to PQC is not a question of” Si “, but” when “- and this planning must start now,” said Marijus Briedis, CTO in NordVPN.
The engineer of the main surfhark systems, Karolis Kaciulis, also agrees that the quantum era could arrive earlier than the world does not plan. “However, I don’t think it would be just to try to predict the exact time,” he said, adding that the team was taking the time to fully assess PQE on their platforms before implementing it.
According to ExpressVPN, the latter research confirms more than there is “no firm consensus” in the industry with regard to quantum computer science. However, the team first added PQE protection on its Lightway protocol in 2023, then turned to NIST standards last January.
“The central premise of research is certainly interesting, but does not change anything practically. Given the attacks” in store now, decrypt later “, we must have a protection against these threats today, because quantum computers will work perfectly well on the data captured of the data – or even decades – before,” said Pete Member, Director of Chief Research.
Also for Proton, the supplier behind Proton VPN and Proton Mail, these new revelations should not be a reason to panic but rather a “call to stay on the right track with the development and deployment of quantum resistant” “” “ Proton CTO, Bart Butler, told Techradar.
