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Are we already talking about attackers having access to quantum computers? I could see government agencies with a big budget having access to it, but I don't s
by jokoon 1y ago
Are we already talking about attackers having access to quantum computers?
I could see government agencies with a big budget having access to it, but I don't see those computers becoming mainstream
Although I could see China having access to it, which is problem.
- mtoner23 1y agoThe fear is attackers are recording conversations today in the hopes that they can crack the encryption when we do have quantum computers in a few years
- mcpherrinm 1y agoCapture-now Decrypt-later isn't really relevant to certificates, who mostly exist to defend against active MITM. The key exchange algorithms need to be PQ-secure for CN-DL, but that has already happened if you have an up-to-date client and server.
- rynn 1y agoSeems like you answered your own question
- tptacek 1y agoNo. Nobody serious that I know of thinks Q-day has occurred or will occur in 2025. The more typical question is whether we're 10, 50, or 100 years away from it.
- phire 1y agoI’m of the opinion that it’s unlikely to happen within 50 years. But I still think it’s a good idea to start switching over to post-quantum encryption, because the lead time is so high. It could easily take a full 10 years to fully implement the transition and we don’t want to be scrambling to start after Q-day.
- sunsetonsaturn 1y ago> 10 years Moving from SHA-1 to SHA-2 took ~20 years - and that's the "happy path", because SHA-2 is a drop-in replacement. The post-quantum transition is more complex: keys and signatures are larger; KEM is a cryptographic primitive with a different interface; stateful signature algorithms require special treatment for state handling. It can easily take more than 20 years.
- mcpherrinm 1y agoThe migration here is going to be long. Chrome and Cloudflare are doing a MTC experiment this year. We'll work on standardizing over the next year. Let's Encrypt may start adding support the year after that. Downstream software might start deploying support MTCs the year after that. People using LTS Linux distros might not upgrade software for another 5 years after that. People run out-of-date client devices for another 5 years too. So even in that timeline, which is about as fast as any internet-scale migration goes, it may be 10-15 years from today for MTC support to be fully widespread.
- bwesterb 1y agoYeah, this is going to take time. That is why we're starting now.
- HexDecOctBin 1y ago> Although I could see China having access to it, which is problem. I can see USA having access to it, which is also a problem. Or any other government.
- squigz 1y agoHow is China having access to it any different than, say, America?
- jokoon 1y agoI trust american institutions more than I trust chinese institutions