CybersecurityQuantum Computers Will Break the Internet, but Only If We Let Them
Tomorrow’s quantum computers are expected to be millions of times faster than the device you’re using right now. Whenever these powerful computers take hold, it will be like going from a Ford Model T to the Starship Enterprise. Hackers may soon be able to expose all digital communications by using advanced quantum computers. A new form of cryptography would stop them, but it needs to be put into place now.
You log into your account, assuming that only you and your bank can access your financial information. Your password is strong. You’re using two-factor authentication. And you take comfort in knowing that the bank has solid security measures of its own. You’re confident that no one else can see or change these sensitive data.
This is the invisible handshake between users and institutions that fuels today’s daily flurry of online banking—and so many other digital transactions. But what happens tomorrow?
Let’s say that, in 10 or 20 years, “Future You” logs into your account, only to see that it’s been zeroed out. Your life savings have been transferred elsewhere. How could this be? What happened to your password, your 2FA, and the security measures that used to help lock down your account?
A hacker used something called a quantum computer to speed past all those safeguards, right to your money.
Tomorrow’s quantum computers are expected to be millions of times faster than the device you’re using right now. Whenever these powerful computers take hold, it will be like going from a Ford Model T to the Starship Enterprise.
This spike in speed may undo the security measures that protect every piece of data sent over the web today. And it’s not just your bank account that could be at risk. This threat could affect everything from military communications to health records. And it would play out on a vastly larger scale than the headline-grabbing data breaches that have affected countless consumers in recent years.
But here’s the good news: This apocalyptic, break-the-internet scenario is preventable—if we act now.
A new report from the RAND Corporation explores the risks of this quantum-computing threat, as well as the efforts that could prevent it from exposing private data. The study is part of Security 2040, a RAND initiative that looks across the horizon to evaluate and analyze future threats.
A New Breed of Supercomputers
Quantum computers use quantum physics to perform certain tasks faster than the computers we use today. Future devices will be able to solve problems that conventional computers would never be able to calculate—at least not in a lifetime, or even 100 million lifetimes.
Quantum computers won’t be better than traditional ones at everything, but they will be superior at specific tasks that have potential commercial appeal. That’s why Google, IBM, and other U.S. companies are competing with one another—and with engineers in countries across the world—to be the first to market.
