Ethical Hacking

7.9    Quantum Cryptography

Some of the cryptographic algorithms for asymmetric encryption that we have discussed so far are not equipped to deal with Q-Day. Q-Day is the day when quantum computers will be powerful enough to break current encryption methods. This would mean that many of today's security protocols that protect the internet, online banking, secure communications, and other important systems would suddenly become insecure.

This day therefore marks a potential turning point in cybersecurity, as conventional cryptographic methods would then be obsolete and massive security gaps could arise. Before Q-Day, this primarily affects algorithms such as RSA, whose security is based on the difficulty of efficiently performing prime factorization ...