Organisations such as Kaspersky Lab., IBM, Google, Microsoft and Intel, amongst others, have been investigating new procedures for increasing the computational power that supports IoT systems through Quantum computing for some time now.
In the continuous technological evolution involved in the promotion and diversification of an increasingly extensive Internet of Things (IoT), which has emerged powerfully in industrial processes thanks to advances in data analysis, there is an equally powerful need to review and improve everything related to the security of communications if we want to continue moving forward in implementing the IoT ecosystem.
In the scenario of the future that points towards autonomous and connected ‘things’, security has become a crucial factor. This is where quantum cryptography – which uses the laws of quantum mechanics for generating secure codes – comes into its own, with the aim of guaranteeing secure end-to-end communications.
The versatile interactions that takes place in communications between people and machines have all the signs vulnerability from the point of view of security; a factor that emerges in view of the need for devices, sensors and IoT networks to be able to withstand the depth charge of computational and mathematical complexity used by the ever more frequent cryptographic attacks, bearing in mind the sophistication of the threats coming from whole communities of hackers operating from anywhere in the world.
The vulnerability of existing cryptographic keys against the computational power that is yet to come
Postquantum cryptography is set to be the next step to which the cryptographic algorithms generally used will have to adapt, which have been developed taking into account certain security parameters in order to protect information from attacks that may be perpetrated by the power that quantum computers will acquire in the future.
This is why post-quantum cryptography represents a step forward compared to the current use of cryptographic algorithms, which are highly vulnerable as they can be easily broken by an averagely powerful quantum computer. The problem with commonly-used algorithms is that their security depends on three highly complex mathematical problems which, paradoxically, can be solved with relative ease by sufficiently powerful quantum computers.
Even the experimental quantum computers we know today are not powerful enough to attack any conventional cryptographic algorithm; however, more and more cryptographers are going for the design of new algorithms with a greater complexity load in order to be prepared for the time when the era of quantum computation becomes a reality.
Although they have not yet materialised, given the limited power of the early models currently in use, the threat of quantum computers is real, and so is the risk of some of them falling into the hands of hacking organisations. In the not-too-distant future a quantum computer will be built with enough power to be able to demolish all the security procedures we rely on today. However, when the time comes to obtain the first quantum computer with high computational power, the new post-quantum algorithms must be in place and thus allow the secure infrastructures and technologies that have been developed in the last decade to continue operating securely with just a few minor changes.
In search of post-quantum algorithms that guarantee IT security
The Kaspersky security organisation predicts the disappearance of cryptography as we know it today in its blog. “Quantum computing may bring either salvation or doom to this emerging new world, although the way in which cryptography exists today will definitely lead to doom.” The thesis that “cryptography is one of the very few fields where adversarial conflict continues to heavily favour the defender’ will be strongly contested until effective post-quantum cryptographic algorithms are introduced,” continues the security organisation.
