Quantum Readiness Day means transitioning to quantum technologies and security before Q-day or Y2Q. Larger quantum computers will be able to break virtually all modern digital security, which relies on classical algorithms known to be “quantum-broken.” However, did you know they’ve all been cracked for decades by a more insidious threat?even without supercomputers?
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The easiest way to do massive-scale bulk decryption by brute force is to exploit the way encryption keys are made from noise sources or pseudorandom ( = deterministic, nonrandom) mechanisms. This is obviously deliberate and the bread and butter of intelligence agency operations like CryptoAG, Reductor Malware, etc. Backdoors in standards bodies are far more toxic because they persist for decades and can be discovered anytime in the future by researchers – Tetra:Burst, Dual_EC_DRBG, etc.
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Unfortunately, the most common is inadvertent flaws, bad engineering or a supply chain in a hostile country – [names of the victim companies withheld, but suffice it to say that many passed FIPs certification] Studies by Keyfactor and others have revealed catastrophic levels of failure at a rate of 1 in every 172 sharing prime factors in a sample of 75 million certificates – if the sources were even somewhat random, this statistically wouldn’t have happened twice during the current lifetime of the universe. Yes, it is that bad and almost always invisibly exploited, except when used to steal cryptocurrency, where everyone can see the transactions on the blockchain (Ethereum Bandit, Randstorm, Libbitcoin Explorer, etc.)
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The only scientifically provable source of randomness is quantum phenomena, where the outcome is entirely unknowable until a measurement is made, even with total knowledge of the system. This differs radically from classical techniques like rolling dice or flipping a coin, where the outcome is always perfectly knowable with just a little information about the initial conditions. It's tantamount to?security through obscurity.?
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Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory physicists developed quantum entropy sources for the US Government, which Qrypt commercialized for civilian use as QRNGs (pictured below). The laws of physics guarantee keys are unique and unpredictable — all hardware and software manufactured in the US.
#quantum #cybersecurity #deeptech #cryptography #nationalsecurity
