Countdown 8th Anniversary! The quantum threat is imminent

Y2K bug, also known as "Millennium Bug", is a global computer crisis, which affected most computing fields in the late 1990s. In the early days, to save storage space, programmers used two digits as the year field in the program and database, which saved more space than the four-digit field. For example, "95.11.02" means November 2, 1995. They believe that if the first two digits are "00" in 2000, people are worried that by 0:00 on January 1, 2000, the computer may think it is 1900 and stop working normally. To this end, the government and enterprises spent about $600 billion to repair or upgrade the system.

Now, the concept of y2q (year to quantum) has been extended in the field of network security, which represents the number of years that quantum computers may destroy today's network security infrastructure.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, today began a countdown to April 14, 2030, the date by which CSA estimates that a quantum computer will be able to break present-day cybersecurity infrastructure. CSA’s website will feature a Year to Quantum (Y2Q) countdown clock to serve as a reminder of the threat’s imminence and the need to find and implement new solutions.

“CSA has been a pioneer in educating the cloud and cybersecurity communities on the dangers that quantum computers present to modern-day cybersecurity and those organizations that house sensitive data. The industry needs to be aware that this is a critical security issue both today and tomorrow. Today, data of long-term value encrypted by traditional cryptography is already at risk to quantum. Shortly, any type of sensitive data will be at risk. There are solutions and the time is now to prepare for a quantum-safe future,” said Jim Reavis, co-founder, and CEO, Cloud Security Alliance.

“There are solutions that can be used to mitigate quantum’s threat. For instance, new quantum-resistant algorithms can be combined with other solutions already utilizing quantum properties like Quantum-Key Distribution (QKD). Together, they are part of a new quantum-safe infrastructure that can already improve cloud security and cybersecurity in general. But these solutions will only be effective if we take the steps to implement them now,” said Bruno Huttner, co-chair, Quantum-safe Security Working Group, and Director of Strategic Quantum Initiatives at ID Quantique.

The CSA Quantum-safe Security Working Group was formed to address key generation and transmission methods that will aid the industry in understanding quantum-safe methods for protecting their data through quantum key distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Quantum key distribution is a physics-based technology, which is used to transfer the key safely. Post-quantum cryptography is a mathematical algorithm that resists quantum computing. The quantum security working group has published several research papers on quantum computing and the measures that companies should take to reduce the risks it brings and prepare for the post-quantum world.

Link:

[1]https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220309005135/en/Cloud-Security-Alliance-Sets-Countdown-Clock-to-Quantum

[2]https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/working-groups/quantum-safe-security/