Chinese Breakthrough in Quantum Computing a Warning for Security Teams

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China’s top quantum-computer researchers have reported that they have achieved quantum supremacy, i.e., the ability to perform tasks a traditional supercomputer cannot. And while it’s a thrilling development, the inevitable rise of quantum computing means security teams are one step closer to facing a threat more formidable than anything before.
 
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China explained in the journal Science they were able to get a system they named Jiuzhang to perform a calculation in minutes that would have taken a traditional supercomputer an estimated 10,000 years to solve.
 
The team joins Google, which claimed it achieved quantum supremacy in Oct. 2019 using a “supercold, superconducting metal,” according to WIRED. IBM has also entered the quantum computing fray, while leveling criticism against Google’s claims of supremacy.
 
Now, the Chinese researchers have claimed quantum supremacy using a quantum computation called Gaussian boson sampling (GBS), their paper explained, which uses particles of light sent through an optical circuit, measuring the output. This means there are now multiple proven quantum-computing technologies, with surely more to come.
 
The security concern is that quantum computers will be able to crack RSA public key cryptography, used to protect data in transit. That means security teams will have to pivot to new post-quantum cryptography solutions. A conservative estimate from a 2019 DigiCert report said teams will need to have protections from quantum computing breaches in place by 2022.
 
To be clear, quantum computing isn’t there just yet. And the Chinese aren’t any closer to being able to decrypt RSA than Google or IBM, but it’s only a matter of time, according to experts.
 
“China’s new quantum-computing breakthrough is important for a number of reasons,” Tim Hollebeek, industry and standards technical strategist with DigiCert told Threatpost. “First, China has invested heavily in funding quantum-computing research, and this new result shows that that investment is paying off. Second, it means two different approaches to building a quantum computer have now successfully achieved quantum supremacy. This could potentially speed up the arrival of commercially useful quantum computers, as one approach may succeed if and when the other runs into some technical roadblock.”

Read more: https://threatpost.com/chinese-quantum-c...ty/161935/