White House tells US agencies to prepare for quantum computing revolution that could destroy existing security

(Michael Dziedzic )

The White House has told US agencies to prepare for a quantum computing revolution that could destroy existing security.

In a new presidential directive, Joe Biden’s administration mandated officials to mitigate the risk that “quantum computers pose to America’s national and economic security”.

The official directives acknowledge that quantum computing could provide vast benefits “from energy to medicine”, as well as generating entirely new industries.

But they also note that those breakthroughs could pose significant risks to national security.

“Research shows that at some point in the not-too-distant future, when quantum computers reach a sufficient size and level of sophistication, they will be capable of breaking much of the cryptography that currently secures our digital communications on the Internet,” the White House noted in a document outlining the new measures.

“To address this risk, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will publish new quantum-resistant cryptographic standards that can protect against these future attacks.

“However, the process to transition America’s most vulnerable IT systems to these new standards will take time, resources, and commitment. America must start the lengthy process of updating our IT infrastructure today to protect against this quantum computing threat tomorrow.”

Much current security technology – which protects everything from banking to national security information – relies on encryption to keep information safe in computer systems. That in turn is based on mathematical problems that are incredibly difficult to resolve without the right information, and so can only be opened with the right password.

But experts fear that quantum computers would be able to do those previously difficult calculations far more easily. That in turn would allow them to break through that traditional encryption, and allow people access to previous secure files and systems.

The new National Security Memorandum includes a range of measures intended to protect against that. That looks to set requirements for federal agencies to update their systems to ensure they are resistant to quantum computing, alongside other changes.

It gives no indication that the memorandum has been prompted by any specific breakthrough in quantum computing, which for the moment remains largely theoretical and impractical.