New IBM encryption tools head off quantum computing threats Posted on : Dec 05 - 2020

IBM rolled out a series of cloud-based services that improve hybrid cloud users' cryptographic key protection, in part to future-proof incursions by quantum computers.

The messages surrounding quantum computers have almost exclusively focused on the sunny side of how these machines will solve infinitely complex problems today's supercomputers can't begin to address. But rarely, if ever, have the masters of hype focused on the dark side of what these powerful machines might be capable of.

For all the good they promise, quantum systems, specifically fault-tolerant quantum systems, are able to crumble the security that guards sensitive information on government servers and those of the largest Fortune 500 companies.

Quantum computers are capable of processing a vast number of numerical calculations simultaneously. Classical computers deal in ones and zeros, while a quantum computer can use ones and zeros as well as achieve a "superposition" of both ones and zeros.

Earlier this year, Google achieved quantum supremacy with its quantum system by solving a problem thought to be impossible to solve with classical computing. The system was able to complete a computation in 200 seconds that would take a supercomputer about 10,000 years to finish -- literally 1 billion times faster than any available supercomputer, company officials boasted.

Quantum computers' refrigeration requirements and the cost of the system itself, which has not been revealed publicly, make it unlikely to be a system IBM or other quantum makers could sell as they would supercomputing systems. But quantum power is available through cloud services.

Defending against quantum power

Faced with this upcoming superior compute power, IBM has introduced a collection of improved cloud services to strengthen users' cryptographic key protection as well as defend against threats expected to come from quantum computers.

Building on current standards used to transmit data between an enterprise and the IBM cloud, the new services secure data using a "quantum-safe" algorithm. Though quantum computers are years away from broad use, it's important to identify the potential risk that fault-tolerant quantum computers pose, including the ability to quickly break encryption algorithms to get sensitive data, IBM said. View More