Quantum Computing, Encryption, Hacking and the Financial Industry

It is just a matter of time for Quantum Computers to be part of our business environment. IBM announced at CES in Las Vegas the first Quantum Computing system for commercial use.

What does that mean for the financial sector? The financial sector is the foundation of our wealth. It is where we store, share and transfer our assets. It is paramount that financial organizations keep our wealth safe.

Strong encryption is the cornerstone to our financial assets. With strong encryption, we are protected from hackers. The issue arises when Quantum computers can threaten our current encryption methods.

IBM stated that “Quantum computers will be able to instantly break the encryption of sensitive data protected by today’s strongest security. Anyone that wants to make sure that their data is protected for longer than 10 years should move to alternative forms of encryption now.” ZDNet reported 5/18/18

The NSA is also making a concentrated effort to transition to quantum-resistant technology, as stated in their US Patents.

Quantum bits, or qubits as they are known, are atomic or subatomic particles. Quantum computers can control these qubits into multiple states at the same time, therefore quantum computers can potentially be millions of times more powerful than current computers.

One potential goal of quantum computers is the ability to solve very large, exponentially complex equations very quickly. A concern for the financial industry is that one of the large exponential problems is the brute force cracking of an encryption key. The complexity of AES 256, one of the strongest legacy encryptions, is 2²⁵⁶. If you have 300 Qubits, the power of that computer is 2³⁰⁰. This means a quantum computer with 300 qubits has the power to discover the encryption key in near real-time.

A technology to prevent encryption key breaking is to encrypt each byte of data with unique, random information. The best source of random information is a Quantum True Random Number Generator (TRNG). With this type of technology, financial businesses can completely protect data from hacking the short, legacy encryption keys. With the new method, each byte has a unique key that is generated randomly, therefore there is nothing to solve for and no short encryption key to be broken.

There are companies that have this technology now to protect our most important assets. Introspective Networks (IN) has partnered with Quintessence Labs, the maker of one of the first and the fastest TRNG Quantum Key generators, to create practical Quantum Encryption. IN has solved the key exchange and key storage problem with patented solutions. The IN solution allows data to be sent completely privately with a VPN network, application to application or point to point solution to secure data from current and future quantum computer threats. Strong encryption, with protection from quantum computers, will be a requirement for all financial instructions in the near future.

 

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