Information technology behemoth International Business Machines Corporationannounced plans to secure cloud crypto services with quantum-resistant cryptography.
According to a Nov. 30 announcement, IBM’s cloud services now support quantum-safe cryptography that cannot be broken with quantum computers. The announcement notes that the firm “is now offering quantum-safe cryptography support for key management and application transactions in IBM Cloud” and explains:
“Through the use of open standards and open source technology, this service enhances the standards used to transmit data between enterprise and Cloud, helping to secure data by using a quantum-safe algorithm.”
The announcement explains that quantum-safe cryptography support will allow the service’s users to “prepare for future threats that could evolve with advances in quantum computing.“ IBM Cloud vice president and chief technology officer Hillery Hunter explained the importance of preparing for future cybersecurity threats:
“As our reliance on data grows in the era of hybrid cloud and quantum computing capabilities advance, the need for data privacy is becoming even more critical. IBM now offers the most holistic quantum-safe approach to securing data available today and to help enterprises protect existing data and help protect against future threats.”
The announcement explains that while quantum computers can help many difficult-to-tackle challenges in the future, they also pose a major threat to the current cryptography standards that could be easily broken by a fault-tolerant quantum computer with a high qubit count. This includes SHA-256, the encryption algorithm that Bitcoin (BTC) uses to secure the network, with potentially disastrous consequences for the cryptocurrency world.
Vice chair of the Association for Computing Machinery Jeremy Epstein even told Modern Consensus in early September that the threat posed by quantum computing is a major argument against blockchain voting.
To mitigate this cybersecurity risk, IBM has set a strategic agenda that includes research, development, and standardization of core quantum-safe cryptography algorithms as well as assistance for customers that need help in securing their systems. IBM said:
The implementation of quantum-resistant cryptography “can be useful against attacks in which malicious actors harvest encrypted data today with the intent to decrypt it later as quantum computing advances.”
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