Google is already fighting hackers from the future with post-quantum cryptography

in #technology10 years ago

For years, experts have warned users to use secure browser communications whenever possible. If you visit a site and the URL in your browser's address bar starts with "https://", you know the communication between your computer and the server is encrypted.

But that encryption, according to Google, has a potential weakness. If quantum computers get sufficiently powerful in the future, they could be used to break TLS, the cryptographic protocol that's one of the foundations of HTTPS.

Worse, a future quantum computer might be able to retroactively decrypt today's internet communications. So Google is addressing the problem today by testing a post-quantum key exchange algorithm in Chrome, which should ideally protect from such future attempts.

http://mashable.com/2016/07/08/google-chrome-quantum-cryptography/#ednw34FL5uqA