“If quantum computers are able to crack contemporary encryption algorithms, then they could decrypt every bit of data ever encrypted prior to quantum computers—whether that data is a day old or decades old,” says David Holmes, Principal Threat Research Evangelist at F5. How likely are people to care about decrypting information that’s decades old? “It depends entirely on what the information is!” says Holmes. “Imagine a database that contains detailed information about a country’s spies who are still active, other types of military or government secrets, or a corporation’s proprietary formula for some chemical compound. It might still be relevant.”
To solve the encryption problem, then, we need new encryption algorithms that are designed to protect against cryptoanalysis by quantum computers—and, to Holmes’ point, we need to be working on them now.
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