Cybercrime has become a major focus for companies. Data stolen today can be decrypted the day a sufficiently powerful quantum computer is ready. That is why the Ministry of Defence has established a new secretariat under the Centre for Cybersecurity (CFCS) to help authorities and companies transition to quantum-secure cryptography. CFCS writes in a press release.
Cryptography is the technique that obfuscates data so that it is protected from unauthorized access. According to CFCS, there are great advantages in transitioning to quantum-secure cryptography even before the quantum computer exists. This ensures long-term protection while avoiding panic and rapid changes, CFCS writes.
The Centre for Cybersecurity is part of the Defence Intelligence Service (FE), which works to prevent and counter threats to Denmark and Danish interests. The new secretariat will guide the authorities and companies that are part of Denmark's critical infrastructure.
CFCS: Most IT systems are based on at least one vulnerable cryptosystem
In a theme article from November 2023 about the transition to quantum-secure cryptography, CFCS writes that most IT systems used today are based on at least one vulnerable cryptosystem.
According to CFCS, quantum computers provide new opportunities to run algorithms that can solve problems that cannot be solved with a regular computer.
In addition, CFCS writes that a quantum computer can make it possible to forge digital signatures and identities. Therefore, the center assesses that the development of quantum computers could threaten the trust and confidentiality of the systems in Denmark's digital infrastructure.
"Like a blow with a big hammer"
Mark Fiedel, deputy director of the Center for Cybersecurity, describes a breakthrough in quantum technology to Jyllands-Posten as a blow with a big hammer.
- There will be a day before and after the breakthrough. But it is not necessarily the same day that the public becomes aware of it, he tells the newspaper.
He refers to three standards for quantum encryption that have been published by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.
- Therefore, you can start now. We want to be ready when the breakthrough comes. It may come sooner, it may come later, but it will come, says Mark Fiedel.
Quantum technology is a collective term for a number of new technologies that use the laws of quantum mechanics to perform tasks and solve problems that are too complex for ordinary computers and computational models.
According to the IT industry, quantum computers are the least mature category, but also the technology with the greatest business potential. If a regular computer has to find the solution to a problem with 100 possible solutions, it will test the solutions one by one. A quantum computer can test all 100 solutions at once, writes the IT industry on its website.
/ritzau/
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