With the advent of quantum computers, the likelihood that modern encryption is going to be invalidated is a possibility. New standards from NIST have arrived that have ushered in the post-quantum era. You don’t need to implement them yet but you need to be familiar with them. Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Jennifer Minella, Andrew Conry-Murray, and Alastair Cooke in this episode to discuss why post-quantum algorithms are needed, why you should be readying your enterprise to use them, and how best to plan your implementation strategy.
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You Don’t Need Post-Quantum Crypto Yet
With the advent of quantum computers, the likelihood that modern encryption is going to be invalidated is a possibility. New standards from NIST have arrived that have ushered in the post-quantum era. You don’t need to implement them yet but you need to be familiar with them. Tom Hollingsworth is joined by JJ MInella, Drew Conry-Murray, and Alastair Cooke in this episode to discuss why post-quantum algorithms are needed, why you should be readying your enterprise to use them, and how best to plan your implementation strategy.
The physics behind using quantum computers may be complicated but the results for RSA-based cryptography are easy to figure out. Once these computers reach a level of processing power and precision that allows them to instantly factor numbers it will invalidate the current methods of encryption key generation. That means that any communication using RSA-style keys will be vulnerable.
Thankfully the tech industry has known about this for years. The push to have NIST implement new encryption standards has been going on for the past two years. The candidates were finalized in mid-2024 and we’re already starting to see companies adopting them for use. This is hopeful because it means that we will have familiarity with the concepts behind the methods used before the threshold is reached that will force us to use these new algorithms.
Does this mean that you need to move away from using traditional RSA methods today? No, it doesn’t. What it does mean is that you need to investigate the new NIST standards and understand when and how they can be implemented in your environment and whether or not any additional hardware will be needed to support that installation.
As discussed, the time to figure this out is now. You have a runway to get your organization up to speed on these new technologies without the pain of a rushed implementation. Quantum computers may not be ready to break things apart today but the rate at which they are improving means it is only a matter of time before the day when you’ll need to switch over to prevent a lot of chaos with your encrypted data and communications.
Podcast Information:
Tom Hollingsworth is the Networking Analyst for The Futurum Group and Event Lead for Tech Field Day. You can connect with Tom on LinkedIn and X/Twitter. Find out more on his blog or on the Tech Field Day website.
Alastair Cooke is a Tech Field Day Event Lead, now part of The Futurum Group. You can connect with Alastair on LinkedIn or on X/Twitter and you can read more of his research notes and insights on The Futurum Group’s website.
Jennifer “JJ” Minella is Founder and Principal Advisor of Network Security at Viszen Security and the co-host of Packet Protector for Packet Pushers. You can connect with JJ on X/Twitter or on LinkedIn. Learn more about her on her website.
Drew Conry-Murray is the Content Director at Packet Pushers Interactive and host of the Network Break podcast. You can connect with Drew on X/Twitter or on LinkedIn. Learn more about Packet Pushers on their website.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast. If you enjoyed the discussion, please remember to subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast application so you don’t miss an episode and do give us a rating and a review. This podcast was brought to you by Tech Field Day, home of IT experts from across the enterprise, now part of The Futurum Group.
