Authored in 2021, white paper The quantum threat to cybersecurity: Looking through the prism of post-quantum cryptography explores the challenges and opportunities for information security as a result of the growth of quantum computing.
There is now an urgent need to develop cryptosystems that can both run on current computing devices and be incorporated into existing internet protocols, while at the same time withstand an attacker with a quantum computer.
Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) offers the potential to develop such systems. However, current post-quantum systems are not simple "drop-in" replacements for existing "pre-quantum" algorithms. This makes it difficult to migrate to post-quantum cryptography, and transform our digital systems to quantum-safe.
This report presents challenges that quantum computing poses to public-key cryptography, Internet protocols that use such cryptographic primitives, and in turn to the Internet-enabled digital systems and services. We showcase recent efforts by Australia/NZ researchers and practitioners in PQC.
We also explore opportunities for Australia and New Zealand to develop domestic quantum-safe cyber security technology and success stories, perform assessment of the strengths and challenges of the two nations in PQC, and provide recommendations to achieve excellence in this area. As Australia and New Zealand focus on building capability in quantum technology, post-quantum cryptography capability should be developed simultaneously.
Download the report
Quantum Threat to Cybersecurity (PDF) [pdf · 1mb]
Quantum Threat to Cybersecurity (accessible text version) [txt · 1mb]