Quantum Computers Already?
Quantum computing… sounds like it belongs in a sci-fi movie set maybe 50 to 100 years into the future, but in reality, it’s much closer than you think. JP Morgan has started looking into quantum computing and how they can use it for trading or predicting financial risks. But what if they’re not the only ones?
According to Wired, tech giants Google, IBM and Microsoft have built quantum processors. There has been no clear success, with attempts producing unsuccessful results that are unreliable when applied to the real working environment. So, there is a quite a long time till quantum computing properly arrives, right? Not quite. According to The Financial Times, the head of Microsoft’s Quantum Team, backs a prediction made by other leading companies, that states quantum machines will have “important practical applications” by 2023.
Quantum Computers & Security The conventional computer, like the one you’re probably using now, uses the power of bits to process and represent data as either a one or zero. A quantum computer will use the power of quantum bits (qubits) which means that it can represent both one and zero. As a result, a functioning quantum computer will have double the computing power of a conventional computer. What does this mean in terms of security? Well, currently the most common form of protection is encryption, which uses mathematics to change ordinary text into an unreadable form, referred to as cipher text, and then requiring an algorithm and key to then decrypt it. However, there is an algorithm that can crack encryptions, known as Shor's algorithm. Shor’s algorithm is an equation designed to operate on a quantum computer. As a result, Wired Magazine has stated that cryptography experts are becoming aware of the flaws of encryption, mainly that it is only capable of protecting against tools that are available to us right now, yet it is exposed to what’s on the horizon (Quantum Computing). An alternative to encryption may be tokenization. Tokenization involves the process whereby meaningful data is turned into a random string of characters with no meaningful data if there were to be a breach. Unlike encryption, there is no algorithm or key that can be used to reverse the data set back to the original form. Let’s bring it back to the present, where the most common form of protection is encryption and although it very tough to get through without the rights keys, there is still the possibility that it could be hacked. That’s why here at Exate Technology, we go beyond the common form of protection, we also tokenize the data at an attribute level to significantly reduce the risk of your data being breached, lost or stolen.