All Post-Quantum, PQC Posts
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Post-Quantum
Capability E.1: Engineering Scale & Manufacturability
Building a cryptography-breaking quantum computer (often dubbed Q-Day) will demand far more than just better algorithms or a few more qubits. It requires a massive scale-up in engineering - reaching hundreds of thousands or even millions of physical qubits - and doing so in a practical, manufacturable way. Engineering Scale & Manufacturability (Capability E.1) is about bridging the gap between today’s laboratory prototypes and tomorrow’s…
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Post-Quantum
Capability B.4: Qubit Connectivity & Routing Efficiency
Qubit connectivity refers to which qubits can interact directly (perform two-qubit gates) with each other. This is often visualized as a connectivity graph: each node is a qubit, and an edge between two nodes means those qubits can be coupled for a two-qubit gate. Some hardware has a dense graph (even complete or all-to-all connectivity), meaning any qubit can directly entangle with any other. Others…
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Post-Quantum
How to Perform a Comprehensive Quantum Readiness Cryptographic Inventory
A cryptographic inventory is essentially a complete map of all cryptography used in an organization’s systems – and it is vital for understanding quantum-vulnerable assets and planning remediation. In theory it sounds straightforward: “list all your cryptography.” In practice, however, building a full cryptographic inventory is an extremely complex, lengthy endeavor. Many enterprises find that even identifying all their IT assets is challenging, let alone…
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Post-Quantum
Infrastructure Challenges of “Dropping In” Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)
Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is moving from theory to practice. NIST has now standardized several PQC algorithms - such as CRYSTALS-Kyber for key exchange (now known as ML-KEM) and CRYSTALS-Dilithium and SPHINCS+ for digital signatures - and major tech companies like Google, AWS, and Cloudflare have begun experimenting with integrating these algorithms. On the surface, it may seem that we can simply “drop in” PQC algorithms…
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Post-Quantum
4,099 Qubits: The Myth and Reality of Breaking RSA-2048 with Quantum Computers
4,099 is the widely cited number of quantum bits one would need to factor a 2048-bit RSA key using Shor’s algorithm – in other words, the notional threshold at which a quantum computer could crack one of today’s most common encryption standards. The claim has an alluring simplicity: if we could just build a quantum machine with a few thousand perfect qubits, decades of RSA-protected…
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Post-Quantum
Telecom’s Quantum‑Safe Imperative: Challenges in Adopting Post‑Quantum Cryptography
The race is on to quantum‑proof the world’s telecom networks. With cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQC) projected to arrive by the 2030s, global communications providers face an urgent mandate to upgrade their security foundations. Today’s mobile and fixed‑line networks rely on public-key cryptography that quantum algorithms could eventually break. In response, the telecom industry is turning to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) as the primary defense. Yet…
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Post-Quantum
Quantum Computing Risks to Cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Beyond
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum derive their security from cryptographic algorithms – mathematical puzzles that are practically impossible for classical computers to solve in any reasonable time. However, the emergence of quantum computing threatens this security assumption. Unlike classical machines, quantum computers leverage quantum mechanics to perform certain computations exponentially faster, potentially breaking the cryptographic foundations of blockchain systems. While quantum computers remain in their…
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Post-Quantum
Rethinking Crypto-Agility
At its core, crypto-agility means being able to swiftly swap out cryptographic algorithms or implementations when weaknesses emerge. In an ideal world, an organization could “drop in” a new encryption algorithm as easily as a software patch, ensuring they stay ahead of threats like quantum computing. The goal is admirable - if you’re nimble in updating encryption, migrating to stronger algorithms is “no big deal”.…
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