IEEE Spectrum: “Quantum-Safe” Crypto Hacked by 10-Year-Old PC

[jim bell]

IEEE Spectrum: “Quantum-Safe” Crypto Hacked by 10-Year-Old PC.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/quantum-safe-encryption-hacked

Future quantum computers may rapidly break modern cryptography. Now researchers find that a promising algorithm designed to protect computers from these advanced attacks could get broken in just 4 minutes. And the catch is that 4-minute time stamp was not achieved by a cutting-edge machine but by a regular 10-year-old desktop computer. This latest, surprising defeat highlights the many hurdles postquantum cryptography will need to clear before adoption, researchers say.

In theory, quantum computers can quickly solve problems it might take classical computers untold eons to solve. For example, much of modern cryptography relies on the extreme difficulty that classical computers face when it comes to mathematical problems such as factoring huge numbers. However, quantum computers can in principle run algorithms that can rapidly crack such encryption.

To stay ahead of this quantum threat, cryptographers around the world have spent the past two decades designing postquantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms. These are based on new mathematical problems that both quantum and classical computers find difficult to solve.

“What is most surprising is that the attack seemingly came out of nowhere.”
—Jonathan Katz, University of Maryland at College Park

For years, researchers at organizations such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been investigating which PQC algorithms should become the new standards the world should adopt. NIST announced it was seeking candidate PQC algorithms in 2016, and received 82 submissions in 2017. In July, after three rounds of review, NIST announced four algorithms that would become standards, and four more would enter another round of review as possible additional contenders.
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