Quantum-Safe Encryption Storage

Before I dive into telling you about FCM4 Quantum-Safe encryption, I'd like to start by sharing our Quantum roadmap. In 2023, IBM demonstrated that Quantum computers have surpassed classical computers in computational ability. This roadmap illustrates how quantum technology will play a crucial role in enhancing our lives in the future. The following picture shows two tracks: one for development and the other for technology.

The reason I’m sharing this roadmap with you is to emphasize that the future will arrive sooner than we anticipate. We need to safeguard our data now, rather than waiting, as delaying could give malicious actors an opportunity to exploit our vulnerabilities. In the not-too-distant future, quantum computers will become "cryptographically relevant" and capable of attacking conventional asymmetric cryptography, such as RSA, ECC, Diffie-Hellman, DSA, etc.?

?We have been developing Flash Core Modules (FCM) since 2014, and this year we introduced FCM4, the world’s first quantum-safe, self-encrypting custom flash module.

On August 14th, 2024, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) introduced three standards:

• For general encryption: FIPS 203 specifies a cryptographic scheme called the Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encryption Mechanism, or ML-KEM, derived from the CRYSTALS-KYBER submission.
• For digital signatures, three standards were selected, but only two are currently in draft form: FIPS 204 specifies the Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm (ML-DSA), derived from the CRYSTALS-Dilithium submission. FIPS 205 specifies the Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Algorithm (SLH-DSA), derived from the SPHINCS+ submission.

What makes Solid State Drives (SSDs) quantum-safe? The goal is to make cryptography resilient even against quantum computer attacks. The term for such a threat is CRQC, which stands for Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer. Simply put, FCM4 enhances conventional asymmetric cryptographic algorithms, which would otherwise be easily broken by CRQC.

FCM4 is now protected by hybrid cryptography, which utilizes both quantum-safe cryptographic methods, such as CRYSTALS-Dilithium and KYBER, and conventional cryptography. The cryptographic protection is only as strong as the stronger of the two algorithms. In other words, an attacker would need to break both the conventional and the quantum-safe algorithms to access your valuable data.

One of the advantages of this hybrid approach is the peace of mind it provides, ensuring data security even if one or the other algorithm is compromised, especially considering that quantum-safe algorithms are relatively new.

Thank you and please let me know if you have any questions and comments.

https://www.ibm.com/quantum/technology

https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/pdfs/redp5725.pdf

https://www.csoonline.com/article/1307682/is-hybrid-encryption-the-answer-to-post-quantum-security.html