Researchers Warn Quantum Apocalypse In The Digital World In The Coming Years

Tim Callan, chief experience officer at cybersecurity firm Sectigo, (photo: sectigo.com)

JAKARTA - A 'Quantum Apocalypse' could undermine everything from internet banking to government secrets. Computer experts warn it is only a few years away from happening.

This fear came into focus earlier this year when an academic paper by Chinese researchers suggested that quantum computers, such as new technology being developed by Google and IBM, could break the encryption that keeps us safe online.

Tim Callan, a chief experience officer at cybersecurity firm Sectigo, warns DailyMail.com that quantum computers, which already exist, albeit in a relatively primitive state, could one day 'make the encryption we use today no longer serve its purpose.

The warning came soon after researchers at the University of Chicago revealed they were working on an unhackable quantum internet.

Today, computers use a system called public key encryption to protect information, such as someone sending you a digital message.

In this case, your device, like a mobile phone, has two keys, a public key, and a private key.

Devices trying to contact you use your machine's public key to encrypt the message, turning it into a very long number, reports Science.

It can then only be unlocked with your device's private key, which deciphers the message to reveal its original.

"It's nearly unbreakable by traditional computers, which would take about 300 trillion years to decode, as they try every possibility," Callan said.

But experts fear quantum devices will be able to shorten encryption, which has been around since the 1970s, because of their design.

While traditional machines use electronic or optical pulses that represent zero or one, quantum machines use photons, particles of light, which can be set to 0, one, or both one and zero.

The flexibility of the new machine allows a quantum computer to encode all possible solutions for encryption, which will then cancel each other out to reveal the right combination.

“The evolution of quantum computers creates a significant threat to data security,” warned Callan. “Their incredible processing power is capable of cracking encryption at high speeds, leaving critical data vulnerable, from bank account details to medical records to state secrets.”

"This scenario is so worrying that experts are calling it a 'Quantum Apocalypse,'" he said. “Quantum computers will be millions of times faster than 'classical computers,' thanks to the fact that they use 'qubits' that can be one, zero, or both at once.”

Callan warns that in this scenario, which cybersecurity experts also call Q-Day, the world's secrets will become vulnerable to anyone with a powerful enough quantum computer.

Concerns have been raised about this in government circles, with President Joe Biden's administration announcing plans to update its security to protect against quantum attacks last year.

The memo envisions a new approach coming in 2024, as these computers are only a few years away.

Quantum computers are still in their infancy, but those already under development include IBM's Osprey computer, launching in 2021, which has 400 qubits, it's already very powerful.

IBM claimed that representing the state of the machine would require more classical bits (ones and zeros) than there are atoms in the universe.

But Chinese researchers suggest that even a relatively small quantum computer, with 378 qubits, can crack strong encryption already. Experts predict this could happen in the next eight to 20 years.

"Recent claims that researchers have broken encryption invites us to wonder whether a quantum apocalypse is already here," said Callan. "However, right now this "breakthrough" is still theoretical."

"It seems that we need the owner of a powerful enough quantum computer, such as IBM, to answer this question by testing it in real life," said Callan.

Callan said it was still unclear how long such a breakthrough would take.

“An important output from such a test is to study how long it would take one of these quantum computers to crack our standard encryption. After all, there's a big difference between, say, six months and 10 years."

Cybersecurity companies like Sectigo, and others including Arqit, are now designing secure quantum encryption that will be immune to the power of quantum computers.

The National Security Agency (NSA) has also been working on a quantum-resistant encryption algorithm since 2015. "The NSA continues to evaluate the use of cryptographic solutions to secure data transmission within the National Security System," they said.

"While this report may not make Quantum Apocalypse a reality for now, it definitely deserves our attention," Callan said. “It is only a matter of time before quantum computers render the world's existing cryptography useless, and organizations need to prepare now for the transition to the new “post-quantum” cryptographic algorithms that are on the way.”

Quantum computing is still very new, with systems only working via wires at the moment. But researchers struggle to get information to transfer certain distances between quantum machines without damaging them.