Security News

The researchers used an approach dubbed 'blind quantum computing' to connect two quantum computing entities; this simulates the situation where an employee at home or in an office remotely connects to a quantum server via the cloud. Professor David Lucas, the co-head of the Oxford University Physics research team, said in a press release: "We have shown for the first time that quantum computing in the cloud can be accessed in a scalable, practical way which will also give people complete security and privacy of data, plus the ability to verify its authenticity."

Quantum computing spreads across a wide range of disciplines both on the hardware research and application development fronts, including elements of computer science, physics, and mathematics. The goal is to combine these subjects to create a computer that utilizes quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than on classical computers.

Tuta Mail has announced TutaCrypt, a new post-quantum encryption protocol to secure communications from powerful and anticipated decryption attacks. Tuta Mail is an open-source end-to-end encrypted email service with ten million users.

Apple announced PQ3, its post-quantum encryption standard based on the Kyber secure key-encapsulation protocol, one of the post-quantum algorithms selected by NIST in 2022. There's a lot of detail in the Apple blog post, and more in Douglas Stabila's security analysis.

Apple is adding to the iMessage instant messaging service a new post-quantum cryptographic protocol named PQ3, designed to defend encryption from quantum attacks. Quantum computing threatens the existing encryption schemas with nearly instant cracking.

Apple has announced a new post-quantum cryptographic protocol called PQ3 that it said will be integrated into iMessage to secure the messaging platform against future attacks arising from the...

Apple says it's going to upgrade the cryptographic protocol used by iMessage to hopefully prevent the decryption of conversations by quantum computers, should those machines ever exist in a meaningful way. The protocol, dubbed PQ3, is intended to safeguard users' chats in some future era of quantum computing, when these computers may be able to break classical encryption methods and render today's messaging security obsolete.

"Leading experts forecast that cyber security risks associated with quantum will materialize in the coming decade," reasoned [PDF] the MAS. Cryptographically relevant quantum computers "Would break commonly used asymmetric cryptography, while symmetric cryptography could require larger key sizes to remain secure," it added. The monetary authority warned that the security of financial transactions and sensitive data financial institutions process could be at risk, thanks to quantum computers that can "Break some of the commonly used encryption and digital signature algorithms."

In today's increasingly automated operational environment, crypto agility-i.e., an organization's ability to switch rapidly and seamlessly between certificate authorities, encryption standards and keys and certificates with minimal disruption to one's digital infrastructure-becomes essential to business. In 2020, Apple reduced the lifespan certificates to a year, pushing others to match them, and in March 2023, Google announced a proposal to reduce TLS certificate validity to 90 days.

I am also skeptical that we are going to see useful quantum computers anytime soon. Since at least 2019, I have been saying that this is hard.