Cybersecurity Arms Race Looms With Quantum Computers on the Horizon

An Amazon Web Services (AWS) article addresses customer responsibility “in the post-quantum migration of secure connections to the cloud.” The context is a future scenario where quantum computers can break the cryptographic algorithms used for data protection. 

According to writers Panos Kampanakis, principal security engineer at AWS, and Alex Weibel, senior software development engineer on the AWS crypto algorithms team, AWS has already begun introducing “quantum-resistant key exchange in common transport protocols used by our customers. “

They also discuss how AWS will choose these algorithms, acknowledging that employing them may result in “a small delay to the connection.” 

This highly technical article explains in detail how customers will need to reconfigure their own systems to facilitate the process of taking advantage of new AWS quantum-resistant algorithms. 

In their conclusion, the writers note that cryptographic migrations can introduce “intricacies” to cryptographic negotiations between clients and servers. Negotiations refer to the process of establishing communication protocols between two devices. 

“During the migration phase,” they write, “AWS services will mitigate the risks of these intricacies by prioritizing post-quantum algorithms for customers that advertise support for these algorithms,” even if that means a slight slowdown in the initial negotiation phase.

Decision-makers who cannot decipher the technical details in this post may come away with a more general message: A dramatic escalation of the cybersecurity arms race is looming in the near future of quantum computers.