It explicitly says that adversaries may already be collecting encrypted US data, or information mathematically encoded in an unreadable format to protect it from unauthorized access, and that they could decrypt it in the future with the help of quantum computers.
That’s the problem with “harvest now, decipher later.” Steal the locked box today and open it when the tool to do so finally exists.
The solution, according to the order, is a strict post-quantum cryptography (PQC) migration schedule. Federal agencies must move their most sensitive systems to post-quantum cryptography for key establishment by the end of 2030 and for digital signatures by the end of 2031.
In other words, the government plans to replace the current method of establishing secure, encrypted connections with a new way that remains secure against future quantum computers.
The crypto angle
Quantum computing has been a buzzword in the crypto industry since Google researchers said a sufficiently powerful machine could crack the Bitcoin blockchain with significantly less firepower than previously expected.
The March paper, co-authored by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake and Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh, said breaking the elliptic curve cryptography behind the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains could require fewer than 500,000 physical qubits. That’s a 20-fold drop from previous estimates.
