2020 Predictions: What Can We Expect from Quantum Computing
December 19, 2019|Scott Carter
There’s been a lot of hype about Quantum Computing,
how it will change the work and how soon that all might happen. Those of us in the security world are also wondering how Quantum computing may impact our ability to protect encryption algorithms and machine identities in general. So, as we look to the new year, I surveyed a select group of my peers to learn how they feel that Quantum computing and cryptography will change the world in 2020 and beyond.
Mark Miller, Venafi Sr. Director of Enterprise Security Support
We have been talking about quantum computing for a long time and we have heard of things in the works. Still, I will believe it when I see it. I am super excited if this is the case. As with any new technology or new feature, we will see an influx of innovation that follows. The new challenges and the new opportunities are exciting and maybe especially for the people that look for good or bad intended solutions.
Prepare to Manage Risk with Shorter Certificate Lifespans
Ashish Pala, Venafi Security Architect
The encryption algorithms have to get strong enough to be considered quantum proof. Currently AES for generic encryption and Simon cipher, in context of IoT, amongst others are considered secure. However, these are symmetric key algorithms. The challenge continues to puzzle crypto-community to overcome asymmetric keys which can be computed by quantum computers using Shor’s algorithm. Therefore, the crypto assets forms like certificates, SSH keys and such other are at risk.
Numerous algorithms have been proposed for post quantum public key cryptography, however, none have been taken forward for practical test in the field for various reasons. While we await a breakthrough in quantum-safe cryptography, there is even greater focus from all corners on producing a quantum computer that truly challenges all existing methods of cryptography. The short answer until then is start adapting short-lived certificates.
Anticipate New Frontiers in SSH Key Inspection
Of course, Quantum can be misused and some adversaries may already have taken a look at it, but like many game changing technologies it requires a lot of logistics and tactics to make it work with success. Quantum is not something you put in your traditional laptop bag and use for looking at traffic. Inserting quantum unseen in the middle may be a logistic challenge that is likely only achievable for advanced state sponsored attackers who have both access to large boundary network taps plus the operational capacity to deploy highly specialized coding.
- Bart Lenaerts, Venafi Sr Product Marketing Manager
For SSH it actually could be a new enabler by both protecting and detecting administrative sessions into cloud workloads. Today, proxy technologies suffer under the high load of SSH sessions and can’t keep up with inspecting high volumes of traffic. Quantum could provide the power to encrypt the public part while inspecting real time sessions for behavior anomalies.
Look for Asymmetric Encryption to be the First Target
Quantum computing and quantum cryptography phenomena is predicted to eventually replace our current conventional approaches. The immediate threat being the short time needed to break the existing asymmetric cryptography. However, the gain is very important as quantum cryptography provides strong security given its non-intuitive nature.
Slam Laqtib, Venafi Technical Product Manager for Code Signing
On the downside, machine identity will be affected since quantum computing will hit asymmetric cryptography as the easiest target. For example, TLS/SSL uses asymmetric keys (private and public certificates) to encrypt the communication between machines exchanging sensitive assets. Hence, the conventional keys and then the secured channels won't be too hard to break anymore.
On the other hand, quantum cryptography will introduce strong keys and crypto by taking random generators (randomness) to the highest level possible. However, the machine identity and digital signature concepts are still in early stage development with all sorts of restrictions but research continues and is likely to overcome all possible limitations.
Understand that Machine Identities Must Evolve
Jing Xie, Venafi Security Researcher
Google's alleged advances in quantum computing might just have given a kick to the cryptography community to speed up their efforts and search for quantum resistant cryptographic algorithms that can replace what's currently being used in common cryptographic applications such as machines identities. Post-quantum cryptography algorithms are a positive and welcome reinforcement to the security of many of the cryptographic applications. Consequently, the industry will go through a migration and transition to quantum resistant algorithm-based machine identities but it will likely take place through a relatively long period of time before the arrival of practical quantum computers.
Get Ready for Crypto-Agility to Become Paramount
Diane Carey, Venafi Product Marketing Manager
We've seen enough quantum computing progress from organizations like Google, IBM, and others to know that the question is "when", not "if" quantum computers will become mainstream. And when that happens, our current public key cryptography (e.g., RSA, DSA, ECC) will become obsolete. However, we don't know if “when” will be the next year, next decade, or further out. While the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been working on a project to create quantum-safe encryption standards since 2016, that work isn't expected to be complete until 2022. A step that organizations can now take to prepare is to evaluate and improve crypto-agility, that is, how quickly and easily they can replace cryptosystems. Having crypto-agility will allow organizations to respond faster when new cryptography is introduced, and has the added benefit of making other cryptosystem changes, like key sizes or changing to a new CA, easier.
Be Aware that Some New Advances May Not Be Made Public
Mark Sanders, Venafi Sr. Sales Engineer
There are conflicting theories on the future of quantum. It seems we constantly hear that quantum computers will provide breakthroughs in so many areas including economic, academic, even AI - and how they will break the encryption that protects the internet. However, some experts say that people have been working on quantum computers for decades and we still have no practical results.
For the conspiracy theorist side of some of us, when an organization actually achieves quantum supremacy (when a quantum computer can outperform a digital supercomputer) will they actually let the public know? Would Big Brother keep his quantum computer a secret and spy on the internet? Or make big improvements in AI? Or create the Death Star?
Get Ready for an Increased Focus on Encryption
Thiago Teodoro, Venafi Director of Product Strategy
There is no doubt that Google investments in the field of quantum computing, illustrated by their recent paper, will accelerate advances in encryption. We are moving from a theoretical discussion that quantum might work to a more practical model where it solves an actual problem. The announcement drives more eyeballs to both quantum and encryption, and, consequently, brings more incentives to increase private and academic research in the field.
Prepare for the Worst: Some Encryption Will Fail
Grab your self-drying jacket and self-lacing Nike sneakers because with quantum computing, we’re going to hit 88mph taking us right into the future! I say get excited! It’s the “start” of a breakthrough that will spark imaginations and unlock possibilities simply not possible with today’s compute power. If you read Google’s claim of quantum supremacy, we’re talking computations in 200 seconds what would take the fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to produce. Quantum computing achieves this by moving beyond bits of either 1 or 0 and uses qubits, which store a combination of different states of 1 and 0 at the same time—referred to as superpositions. Think of it like exponentially more computational power within the same time and space. That’s incredible!
Greg Delaney, Venafi Product Marketing Manager
Now, it’s not particularly clear what we’ll do with this. The technology itself is said to be rather finicky to work with. A lot of the big names we expect are working on their own quantum computing including IBM, AWS, Intel, the list goes on. We’re just getting started. I’m most excited about what we’ll see in breakthroughs in medicine and artificial intelligence—modeling and computational processes that benefit from an exorbitant amount of compute power.
I hear about, and recognize, there are likely drawbacks as well. Can encryption algorithms hold up to quantum computing? Reasonably, I’d say some won’t but I understand some will as well. Regardless, some things will break and other things will get stronger—that’s what’s exciting about the continued advancement in technology! Now, where did I place that sports almanac?
"We rely on algorithms we KNOW will be compromised"
After reading all the expert opinions above, it’s pretty safe to say that the full impact of quantum computing is not likely to hit in 2020. On the other hand, now is the time when we need to begin to prepare for a huge impact in the coming years. And that effort must begin immediately. In the words of Jim Goodman, Co-founder & Principal Security Architect at Crypto4A, “Today we create and manage machine identities via certificates and SSH/VPN keypairs, all of which rely on algorithms (i.e. RSA and ECC) that we KNOW will be compromised when quantum computing becomes a reality. Hence, we’re working with partners such as Venafi to develop quantum-safe solutions to protect machine identities.”
Are you ready to start preparing for the impact of quantum computing?
CIO Study: Certificate-Related Outages Continue to Plague Organizations
About the author
Scott Carter
Scott is Senior Manager for Content Marketing at Venafi. With over 20 years in cybersecurity marketing, his expertise leads him to help large organizations understand the risk to machine identities and why they should protect them
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE CONTINUING WITH REGISTRATION AND/OR ACTIVATION OF THE VENAFI CLOUD SERVICE (“SERVICE”).
This is a legal agreement between the end user (“You”) and Venafi, Inc. ("Venafi" or “our”). BY ACCEPTING THIS AGREEMENT, EITHER BY CLICKING A BOX INDICATING YOUR ACCEPTANCE AND/OR ACTIVATING AND USING THE VENAFI CLOUD SERVICE FOR WHICH YOU HAVE REGISTERED, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU ARE ENTERING INTO THIS AGREEMENT ON BEHALF OF A COMPANY OR OTHER LEGAL ENTITY, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO BIND SUCH ENTITY AND ITS AFFILIATES TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, IN WHICH CASE THE TERMS "YOU" OR "YOUR" SHALL REFER TO SUCH ENTITY AND ITS AFFILIATES. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE SUCH AUTHORITY, OR IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MUST NOT ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT AND MAY NOT USE THE SERVICE.
You shall not access the Service if You are Our competitor or if you are acting as a representative or agent of a competitor, except with Our prior written consent. In addition, You shall not access the Service for purposes of monitoring its availability, performance or functionality, or for any other benchmarking or competitive purposes, and you shall not perform security vulnerability assessments or penetration tests without the express written consent of Venafi.
This Agreement was last updated on April 12, 2017. It is effective between You and Venafi as of the date of Your accepting this Agreement.
The Venafi Cloud Service includes two separate services that are operated by Venafi as software as a service, each of which is separately licensed pursuant to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and each of which is considered a Service under this Agreement: the Venafi Cloud Risk Assessment Service or the Venafi Cloud for DevOps Service. Your right to use either Service is dependent on the Service for which You have registered with Venafi to use.
Definitions
“Your Data” means electronic data and information submitted by or for You to the Service or collected and processed by or for You using the Service.
License Grants and Restrictions
License Grant by Venafi to You. Venafi grants to You a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-assignable, limited license (the “License”) to access and use the Service during the applicable License Term set out in Section 2.2 below, in accordance with the instructions contained in the user documentation that accompanies the Service (“Documentation). Venafi hereby grants to You the right to use the Documentation solely in connection with the exercise of Your rights under this Agreement. Other than as explicitly set forth in this Agreement, no right to use, copy, display, or print the Documentation, in whole or in part, is granted. This license grant is limited to internal use by You. This License is conditioned upon Your compliance with all of Your obligations under this Agreement. Except for the express licenses granted in this Section, no other rights or licenses are granted by Venafi, expressly, by implication, by way of estoppel or otherwise. The Service and Documentation are licensed to Licensee and are not sold. Rights not granted in this Agreement are reserved by Venafi.
License Term.
Venafi Cloud Risk Assessment Service. If you have registered to access and use the Venafi Cloud Risk Assessment Service, Your right to use the Venafi Cloud Risk Assessment Service is limited to ninety (90) days from the date You first register for the Service, unless otherwise extended on Your agreement with Venafi.
Venafi Cloud for DevOps Service. If you have registered to access and use the Venafi Cloud for DevOps Service, Your right to use the Venafi Cloud for DevOps Service shall extend indefinitely and may be terminated by either You or Venafi at any time for any reason.
Restrictions on Use. The grant of rights stated in Sections 2.1 and 2.2, above, is subject to the following restrictions and limitations:
If You have registered to access and use the Venafi Cloud for DevOps Service, You must use SSL/TLS certificates issued to you at no charge through the Service for development and testing purposes only, and You are strictly prohibited from using such SSL/TLS certificates in a production environment or in any production capacity. If you are registered with a public Certification Authority (“CA”) supported by the Service and have valid credentials issued by such CA with which you can subscribe to such CA’s SSL/TLS certificates on a fee bearing basis for use in production environments, You may request such certificates through the applicable interface present in the Service by using such credentials. In such instance, the fee bearing certificate(s) will be issued to You by the CA and any access to or use of such certificates by You will be subject to the terms and conditions set out by the CA. No fees will be paid to or processed by Venafi in this case. The use of DigiCert issued certificates shall be subject to the Certificate Services Agreement published by DigiCert at https://www.digicert.com/docs/agreements/Certificate-Services-Agreement.pdf, which terms are hereby incorporated by reference.
You shall not use (or cause to be used) the Service for the benefit of any third party, including without limitation by rental, in the operation of an Applications Service Provider (ASP) service offering or as a service bureau, or any similar means.
You shall not distribute access to the Service, in whole or in any part, to any third party or parties. You shall not permit sublicensing, leasing, or other transfer of the Service.
You shall not (a) interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service or third-party data contained therein, (b) attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or its related systems or networks, (c) permit direct or indirect access to or use of the Service in a way that circumvents a contractual usage limit, or (d) access the Service in order to build a competitive product or service.
License Grant by You. You grant to Venafi and its affiliates, as applicable, a worldwide, limited-term license to host, copy, transmit and display Your Data as necessary for Venafi to provide the Service in accordance with this Agreement. Subject to the limited licenses granted herein, Venafi acquires no right, title or interest from You or any of Your suppliers or licensors under this Agreement in or to Your Data.
Ownership
Venafi Materials. Venafi and/or its suppliers have and shall retain ownership of all right, title and interest in and to the Service and the Documentation and all intellectual property rights embodied in the Service and Documentation, including without limitation any patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets in the Service and any modifications and/or derivatives thereof, whether or not made at Licensee’s request, and all know-how, concepts, methods, programming tools, inventions, and computer source code developed by Venafi (collectively, “Venafi Materials”).
Limited Feedback License. You hereby grant to Venafi, at no charge, a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable license under Your intellectual property rights in and to suggestions, comments and other forms of feedback (“Feedback”) regarding the Service provided by or on behalf of You to Venafi, including Feedback regarding features, usability and use, and bug reports, to reproduce, perform, display, create derivative works of the Feedback and distribute such Feedback and/or derivative works in the Service. Feedback is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind and shall not include any of Your confidential information.
Disclaimer of Warranties
EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION 4, THE SERVICE AND DOCUMENTATION ARE PROVIDED “AS-IS,” WITH “ALL FAULTS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR NONINFRINGEMENT WHETHER ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, TRADE PRACTICE OR ANY OTHER MANNER. VENAFI IS NOT OBLIGATED TO PROVIDE ANY UPDATES, UPGRADES OR TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR THE SERVICE. VENAFI DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY AND INDEMNIFICATION OBLIGATIONS FOR ANY HARM OR DAMAGES CAUSED BY ANY THIRD-PARTY HOSTING PROVIDERS. In no event does Venafi warrant that the Service is error free or that You will be able to operate the Service without problems or interruptions. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties and to the extent that is the case the above exclusion may not apply.
Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT WILL VENAFI OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE, PROFIT, OR DATA, OR FOR DIRECT, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE EVEN IF VENAFI OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages and to the extent that is the case the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to You.
Term and Termination
This License is effective until terminated as set forth herein or the License Term expires and is not otherwise renewed by the parties. Venafi may terminate this Agreement and/or the License at any time with or without written notice to You if You fail to comply with any term or condition of this Agreement or if Venafi ceases to make the Service available to end users. You may terminate this Agreement at any time on written notice to Venafi. Upon any termination or expiration of this Agreement or the License, You agree to cease all use of the Service if the License is not otherwise renewed or reinstated. Upon termination, Venafi may also enforce any rights provided by law. The provisions of this Agreement that protect the proprietary rights of Venafi will continue in force after termination.
Compliance With Laws
Violation of Laws. You shall not knowingly take any action or omit to take any action where the reasonably predictable result would be to cause Venafi to violate any applicable law, rule, regulation or policy and, to the extent not inconsistent therewith, any other applicable law, rule, regulation and policy.
Governing Law
This Agreement shall be governed by, and any arbitration hereunder shall apply, the laws of the State of Utah, excluding (a) its conflicts of laws principles; (b) the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods; (c) the 1974 Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of Goods; and (d) the Protocol amending the 1974 Convention, done at Vienna April 11, 1980.
General
This Agreement is binding on You as well as Your employees, employers, contractors and agents, and on any permitted successors and assignees. Except if otherwise superseded in writing by a separately executed agreement, this Agreement is the entire agreement between You and Venafi with regard to the License granted hereunder, and You agree that Venafi will not have any liability for any statement or representation made by it, its agents or anyone else (whether innocently or negligently) upon which You relied in entering into this Agreement, unless such statement or representation was made fraudulently. This Agreement supersedes any other understandings or agreements, including, but not limited to, advertising, with respect to the Service. If any provision of this Agreement is deemed invalid or unenforceable by any country or government agency having jurisdiction, that particular provision will be deemed modified to the extent necessary to make the provision valid and enforceable and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect. Should such modification be impractical or denied, You and Venafi shall thereafter each have the right to terminate this Agreement on immediate notice.
Survival. The parties agree that the rights and obligations set forth in the above-referenced Section 1 (Definitions), 3 (Ownership), 4 (Disclaimer of Warranties), 5 (Limitation of Liability), 6 (Term and Termination), 7 (Compliance with Laws), 8 (Governing Law), and 9 (General) shall survive the termination of this Agreement for any reason and enforcement thereof shall not be subject to any conditions precedent.
Assignment. This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties’ respective successors and permitted assigns. You shall not assign this Agreement or any of Your rights or obligations hereunder without the prior written consent of Venafi and any such attempted assignment shall be void.
This site uses cookies to offer you a better experience. If you do not want us to use cookies, please update your browser settings accordingly. Find out more on how we use cookies.