(CIO) French aerospace, defense, and security conglomerate Thales is laying down preparations for the day cyberhackers achieve quantum advantage–especially as it relates to cryptography.
Senior vice president at the firm, Todd Moore, believes all current generation cryptography could be broken entirely by significant leaps in quantum. In the worst case scenario all current cryptography will need to be retrofitted with new quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms – a potentially mammoth task.
Moore says the company’s recent decision to partner with ISARA and ID Quantique hinges on building a “crypto-agile”, “quantum-safe” security framework into its future products.
“I would say a lot of companies are starting to think about that malicious actor coming your way… I think in the next years, not months, but not decades – in the 2020s – you’re going to see companies start putting safeguards in place. .”
“I think there is collaboration on the industry side, we see a lot of startups, partners wanting to integrate different parts of the ecosystem … who’s going to be the winner in this space is still to be determined. From a Thales position, we’re just making sure we are putting ourselves in a place where we don’t become beholden to one technology or one vendor. It’s why it’s so important for us to have large partnerships, and a large ecosystem of partners.”
Thales Building Large Ecosystem of Partners for Day Cyberhackers Achieve Quantum Advantage
