IBM Quantum and Microsoft have formed a coalition to tackle post-quantum cryptography alongside not-for-profit research tank MITRE, United Kingdom-based cryptography firm PQShield, Google sibling company SandboxAQ and the University of Waterloo.
We’re proud to be a part of a new community of cybersecurity organizations to accelerate adoption of post-quantum cryptography in commercial & open-source technologies.
Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) addresses the potential threat posed by quantum computers of the future. Current cryptography schemes rely on mathematical problems to stymie decryption attempts.
Cracking or bypassing such encryption with a classical computer would be nearly impossible. Some experts estimate that it would take a binary computer system roughly 300 trillion years to break a 1,024-bit or 2,048-bit RSA key.
RSA, named for the computer scientists who first discussed it, is largely considered the standard for encryption.
Theoretically speaking, however, a quantum computer with sufficient hardware and architecture should be able to break RSA and similar encryption schemes within a matter of weeks, days or even hours.
“Preparing for a PQC transition includes developing standards for the algorithms; creating secure, reliable, and efficient implementations of those algorithms; and integrating the new post-quantum algorithms into cryptographic libraries and protocols.”
Technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrency, which rely on mathematical encryption, could be particularly vulnerable to decryption attacks by the theoretical quantum computers of the future. However, it’s currently unclear how long it could be before such threats could come to fruition.
One study conducted in 2022 determined that it would take a quantum computer with 300 million qubits (a very generalized measure of the potential processing power of a quantum system) to crack the Bitcoin blockchain fast enough to do any damage. By comparison, today’s most advanced quantum computers average a little over 100 qubits.
However, per the architecture described in that paper, it’s possible that more advanced qubit arrangements, chipsets and optimization algorithms could significantly change the calculus involved and drop the theoretical 300-million-qubit requirement exponentially. For this reason, the global technology community is turning to quantum-safe encryption.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) chose four proposed post-quantum encryption algorithms in 2022 — CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, SPHINCS+ and Falcon — as candidates for a PQC-safe encryption standard.
On Aug. 24, 2023, NIST announced that three of the algorithms had been accepted for standardization, with the fourth, Falcon, expected to follow suit in 2024.
Now that the algorithms have been accepted and (mostly) standardized, the coalition is set to begin its mission of using the deep knowledge and hands-on experience amassed by its members to ensure key institutions such as government, banking, telecommunications and transportation services are able to transition from current to post-quantum encryption.
Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino explained that if the hacking group was telling the truth, they would have asked for a ransom, but he “couldn’t find any request.”
The symbolism of Labour taking the West Midlands mayor, a jewel in the Tory crown, could be felt in the room as Labour activists gathered in Birmingham to celebrate the win with their new mayor Richard Parker and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
There are moments on election journeys when the momentum shifts – and this win felt like one of them.
“We humbly asked [the voters] to put their trust and confidence in a changed Labour Party and they did. And that is a significant piece of political history that we’ve made here today,” said Sir Keir at his victory rally.
“So the message out of these elections, the last now the last stop before we go into that general election, is that the country wants change.
“I hope the prime minister is listening and gives the opportunity to the country to vote as a whole in a general election as soon as possible.”
This win gave them the boost that was missing when they won the Blackpool South by-election on a massive 26-point swing, but then failed to pick up the hundreds of council seats they were chasing.
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This win, on just 1,508 votes or 0.25 per cent of the vote, was a body blow for a Conservative party that believed they could just about cling on. Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, is now the last Tory standing.
For Labour, then a moment to bookmark.
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Just as Boris Johnson’s Hartlepool by-election win in 2021 was a low point for Sir Keir – he told me this week that he considered resigning over the loss because he thought it showed he was the barrier to Labour’s recovery – this too will feel devastating not just for Andy Street but for the PM too.
Labour has beaten him in a street fight. He’s bloodied with Sir Keir now emboldened.
“This was the one result we really needed,” said one senior Labour figure. “It’s been our top focus for the past week and symbolically a very important win.”
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Analysis of local election and mayoral results
And Labour needed the boost, because, as Professor Michael Thrasher pointed out in his Sky News’ national vote share projection calculated from the local election results, Sir Keir was not picking up the sort of vote share that Tony Blair was winning in the run-up to the 1997 Labour landslide.
His latest calculation of a 35% vote share for Labour and 26% for the Tories, put Sir Keir winning a general election but short of a majority.
What the West Midlands mayoral win did for Sir Keir was to give him a clear narrative that he is coming for the Tories and will do what he needs to take them down.
It raises inevitable questions about what is next for Rishi Sunak. The prime minister had nowhere to go today, not one win to celebrate. The worst performance in council elections in 40 years, was already pretty much as bad as it gets before the loss of Andy Street. The former Conservative mayor was magnanimous towards the prime minister, saying the loss was his alone.
But colleagues will not be so generous. One former cabinet minister said this loss was “devastating”. “We’re done and there’s no appetite to move against him,” said the senior MP. Many Tories tell me they are now resigned to defeat and believe Mr Sunak and his team needed to own it, rather than the rest of the party.
The coming days might be bumpy, the mood will be stony. But Tories tell me not much will actually change for them.
For Sir Keir, he now needs to sell not the changed Labour Party, but his vision for changing the country. The West Mids mayor’s win was dazzling, but it could have so easily gone the other way. And as Mr Sunak fights to survive, Labour still has to fight hard to win.