Cryptography Apocalypse

9Preparing Now

The coming quantum cryptographic break will happen; it's only a matter of when. When it does happen, it will invalidate much of the world's traditional public key cryptography and weaken other existing cryptography by at least 50%. And this is a best-case scenario that does not include any other quantum advances that could make solving symmetric ciphers and hashes even easier.

In the previous chapters, we discussed quantum mechanics, quantum computers, networks, and the coming changes, including the likely cryptographic breaks. This chapter discusses how you and your organization can start preparing today, before the break has happened. This chapter is likely the reason many of you bought this book. First, we will cover the four major stages of any post-quantum mitigation project, and then we will focus on the project steps.

Four Major Post-Quantum Mitigation Phases

Most organizations' post-quantum mitigation projects will include these four major stages:

• Stage 1: Strengthen current solutions.
• Stage 2: Move to quantum-resistant solutions.
• Stage 3: Implement quantum-hybrid solutions.
• Stage 4: Implement fully quantum solutions.

Figure 9.1 shows each stage represented graphically. Each project stage will be discussed in more detail in the following sections.

Stage 1: Strengthen Current Solutions

Every organization should, as soon as possible, update any weakly quantum-resistant cryptography and use existing quantum-resistant cryptography and key sizes where feasible. ...