Will Quantum computing break privacy?

privacy techniques are based on cryptographic principles, some of which are heavily affected by the advent of quantum computing, in this lesson, we will explore this concept further and see which techniques are affected and what can be done to improve upon them

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Lesson Transcript

  • [00:00 - 00:14] So the question that's ever present is, will quantum computing break privacy? And to understand this concept further, we have to look into the cryptography world and understand what does exactly the quantum computing breaks.

  • [00:15 - 00:33] So post-quantum cryptography refers to the cryptographic algorithms that ought to be secure against an attack by a quantum computer. As of 2020, this is not true for most popular public key algorithms, which can be efficiently broken by a sufficiently strong quantum computer.

  • [00:34 - 00:49] The problem with currently popular algorithms is that their security relies on one of the three hard mathematical problems. Indigio factorization problem, discrete logarithm problem, or the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem.

  • [00:50 - 01:11] All of these problems can be easily solved on a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running short algorithm. Even though current public known experimental computers lack the processing power to break any real cryptographic algorithms, many cryptographers are designing new algorithms to prepare for a time while quantum computing becomes a threat.

  • [01:12 - 01:32] And the systems that are in place today and are being designed, are being designed with the consideration of quantum computing breaking the cryptography. So in case it's very disposable to use a post quantum or quantum safe algorithm, it should be recommended and it should be used.

  • [01:33 - 01:44] And we have quite a lot of progress in this area that we can go into. And we will look more into this in the cryptography module.

  • [01:45 - 02:13] [ Silence ]

  • [00:00 - 00:14] So the question that's ever present is, will quantum computing break privacy? And to understand this concept further, we have to look into the cryptography world and understand what does exactly the quantum computing breaks.

    [00:15 - 00:33] So post-quantum cryptography refers to the cryptographic algorithms that ought to be secure against an attack by a quantum computer. As of 2020, this is not true for most popular public key algorithms, which can be efficiently broken by a sufficiently strong quantum computer.

    [00:34 - 00:49] The problem with currently popular algorithms is that their security relies on one of the three hard mathematical problems. Indigio factorization problem, discrete logarithm problem, or the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem.

    [00:50 - 01:11] All of these problems can be easily solved on a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running short algorithm. Even though current public known experimental computers lack the processing power to break any real cryptographic algorithms, many cryptographers are designing new algorithms to prepare for a time while quantum computing becomes a threat.

    [01:12 - 01:32] And the systems that are in place today and are being designed, are being designed with the consideration of quantum computing breaking the cryptography. So in case it's very disposable to use a post quantum or quantum safe algorithm, it should be recommended and it should be used.

    [01:33 - 01:44] And we have quite a lot of progress in this area that we can go into. And we will look more into this in the cryptography module.

    [01:45 - 02:13] [ Silence ]