The technology behemoth IBM has unveiled an entirely new suite of tools and skills intended to provide an every angle, quantum-safe strategy to secure businesses and governmental organizations as they move towards the post-quantum computing age.
The Quantum Safe solution was unveiled at the business's yearly Think conference in Orlando, Florida, and combines expertise in cryptography and critical infrastructure, according to the company, to handle any potential security issues that quantum computing may provide in the future.
In order to help sectors transition to post-quantum cryptography, IBM also launched the Quantum Safe Roadmap. Security professionals and scientists anticipate that in the future, quantum computers will be able to decrypt the majority of encryption algorithms, making email, secure banking, cryptocurrency, and communications systems subject to serious cybersecurity risks. It will consequently soon be necessary for organizations, technology vendors, and internet protocols to switch to quantum-safe encryption.
When the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology set up a competition to find and standardize quantum-safe encryption algorithms, NATO has already started testing quantum-safe solutions to determine the viability and utility of such technology for real-world implementations.
The White House also mandated that federal agencies provide an encryption inventory of systems which could be at risk from cryptographically related quantum computers. The US National Security Agency also issued updated standards for security networks to switch to quantum-safe techniques by 2025.
Three new capacities gear up for the post-quantum world
According to a press release from the company, IBM's new set of competences is made to aid clients in three main areas as they get ready for the post-quantum time:
1. To check for cryptographic inventory, dependencies, and weaknesses in source and object-based code, organizations can utilize IBM Explorer. Then, using cryptography bills of materials (CBOM), teams may gather all potential risks in one place to see and assess them.
2. IBM Quantum Safe Advisor enables the construction of a dynamic or practical picture of the cryptographic inventory to direct remediation, analyzing cryptographic posture and adherence to prioritize risks.
3.IBM Quantum Safe Remediator helps organizations to implement and test quantum-safe remediation patterns based on best practices in order to understand the potential effects on systems and assets as they get ready to implement quantum-safe solutions.
The roadmap
The company's roadmap shows the steps taken to develop advanced quantum-safe technology. It was created to assist organizations in addressing predicted cryptographic requirements and needs and to safeguard systems against new vulnerabilities, according to the company. According to IBM, this entails three crucial steps:
1. Determine the use of cryptography while examining dependencies and creating a CBOM.
2. Examine vulnerabilities' cryptography posture and prioritize remedy based on threats.
3. Use built-in automation and crypto-agility to mitigate and remediate security flaws. Crypto-agility is the capacity to rapidly transition between encryption mechanisms like computational methods and cryptographic basics while minimizing the impact on other systems.
Quantum-safe encryption
To combat the upcoming quantum-based cybersecurity threats, quantum-safe encryption is essential. Organizations would be wise to anticipate the need for quantum-safe encryption by first determining what data will last the longest and how it may be exposed to attacks in the future.
Companies that have trouble should concentrate on identification since, even though they'll secure all of their encryption, someone may acquire "legitimate" entry to their infrastructure and systems if they hack into their identity system.
Another crucial step is to establish years-to-quantum (Y2Q) transition as a custom project and provide it with the resources necessary to assure success and a seamless transition. A crypto-agile approach should also be used when considering any infrastructure upgrades.
In order to increase protection against both current assaults and emerging threats, businesses should implement solutions that combine multiple post-quantum methods with the tried-and-true classical cryptography that is already in use.