alt Hacker News> it won't be a big deal.
This isn't a space I know too much about, but even if we all start using quantum-safe encryption for everything today, won't the arrival of quantum computers that can break traditional encryption not still be a big deal?
Given that intelligence agencies, tech companies and various bad actors have been storing encrypted data for a long time, hoping to decrypt when (if?) that day comes?
Replies
BoppreH • today at 1:43 PM
Definitely, but then the damage is limited to the encrypted data that those actors managed to intercept some years before. Compared to QC arriving to an unprepared world, that's a very limited impact.
Intelligence agencies and companies for which industrial espionage is an actual concern will re-encrypt their data storage, or have already done so. The only risk is on data that was already obtained with a vulnerable encryption. So there is some risk that a few secrets are lost, but it won’t be everything. And if you were to start now and quantum decryption isn’t viable for a decade then any secrets that do get exposed are surely less of a problem than if they were discovered today.