The Greatest Threat to the Internet or an Amazing Opportunity? Quantum Computers

The Greatest Threat to the Internet or an Amazing Opportunity? Quantum Computers

I am proud to be a Fellow of the BCS (FBCS) and honoured to be invited to give a talk hosted by the BCS Information Security Specialist Group (ISSG) on 31 January 2024 (6:30–8pm):

It can be attended on the campus where John Napier invented logarithms (Merchiston) or on-line. Like it or not, Moore’s Law is likely to be coming to an end, and where we need to start to move away from our silicon approaches, and start thinking in quantum spaces. This, though, will bring new computing models, and it is our public key encryption methods that are likely to fall with the advent of quantum computers. As we don’t know when quantum computers will arrive at the scale that can break our existing public key methods, we need to start the migration process soon (if not, now!).

But, could quantum computers bring new models of processing in cybersecurity? Well, yes, and we (myself and Madjid Tehrani ) will outline some of these in the talk.

If you are interested, the abstract is:

Public key encryption plays a key part in our digital world, including in the creation of secure encryption tunnels, proof of identity, and in creating digital signatures. Unfortunately, quantum computers will break all of your existing public key encryption. NIST, though, has been defining a range of Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) methods and which will replace our existing methods.

This talk will outline the risks involved, and possible migration strategies, along with an outline in how PQC methods actually work. Along with this, we will see some of the opportunities that quantum computers will supply in cybersecurity.

So, why not consider coming along to listen about the amazing world of quantum computers.