Cybersecurity in the Quantum Era

As emphasized by the recent announcements on the quantum advantage, quantum computers can already perform computations, deemed impossible or at least very lengthy with classical computers. Having access to improved computing power is great news in many areas. However, this also represents a threat for most of our communications. Indeed, cryptography, which is underpinning the security of our communication infrastructure, is based on some hard mathematical problems, which will become tractable with a quantum computer. Our complete cybersecurity infrastructure has to be revamped. In this talk, we start with a brief explanation of the quantum computer and explain the quantum threat. We then present possible solutions. Some solutions are based on new algorithms. They are known as quantum-resistant algorithms. These can be complemented with quantum solutions, which utilize the same peculiar properties of the quantum world to thwart the quantum computer threat. Together, they will be part of a new quantum-safe infrastructure. Any organisation or person relying on secure communication for his business or personal life has to start taking this new threat into account.