Quantum computing ‘no threat’ to web security, says crypto expert

AES encryption standard safe from quantum computers, says crypto boffin

Leading cryptography expert Paul Kocher says the new breed of quantum computers will not be able to crack encryption currently used to secure web and wireless network traffic.

The statement follows concerns among some security experts that the high processing power of quantum compute technologies could be used to crack the encryption used by most organisations.

Kocher, chief executive at Cryptography Research Inc, said: “Quantum computing is interesting because it changes fundamentally the way we do computations.”

But, he added, "there are other things besides quantum computing that keep me awake at night. Implementation errors in algorithmic cryptography and buffer overflows cause me to lose vastly more sleep than quantum computing.”

The most secure algorithm in use today is the 256-bit advanced encryption standard, also known as AES. And Kocher says this is safe from quantum computing.

“If anybody making purchasing decisions is troubled about quantum computing, they’re worrying about completely the wrong cryptographic problems,” he said.

Currently quantum compute systems are at a similar stage in development to early transistor-based classical computer systems. The hope is that their increased computational efficiency will allow problems not within the reach of classical computers to be solved.