(SDX.Central) IBM researchers say they have unlocked the key to keep data safe from quantum computing attacks, and the vendor now offers quantum-safe cryptography support for key management and application transactions in IBM Cloud.
This makes it the industry’s “most holistic” quantum-safe cryptography for securing data, IBM Cloud execs claim, and it does this via open standards and open source technology.
Although this is still five to 10 years out, “we need to be prepared so that the algorithms are ready for the future,” said Raj Nagaratnam, distinguished engineer and CTO for cloud security at IBM. If an attacker today steals sensitive data protected by transport layer security (TLS) protocols or public and private encryption keys, “it has the risk of being broken by quantum computers in the future.”
IBM’s strategy for long-term security centers around the standardization of open source tools such as CRYSTALS and Open Quantum Safe, Nagaratnam explained. It also includes new encryption capabilities that can help customers adopt a quantum-safe cryptography approach for data in transit within IBM Cloud.
The Cryptographic Suite for Algebraic Lattices, or CRYSTALS, is a lattice cryptography platform based on two quantum-resistant cryptographic primitives: Kyber, which is a secure key encapsulation mechanism; and Dilithium, which is a secure digital signature algorithm.
Also today, IBM Key Project — a cloud-based service that provides lifecycle management for encryption keys used in IBM Cloud services and customers’ applications — introduced a new capability to use quantum-safe cryptography-enabled TLS connections to better protect data during the key lifecycle management.
“When you look at the fullest degree of protection, of not only the data keys, but also the data that goes to the application, we are going to bring that holistic view of quantum-safe,” Nagaratnam said.
IBM Cloud Claims Quantum-Safe Cryptography Firsts
