US, China agencies race to shield secrets from quantum computers: Report

In February, a Canadian cybersecurity firm delivered an ominous forecast to the US Department of Defense. America’s secrets actually, everybody’s secrets are now at risk of exposure, warned the team from Quantum Defen5e (QD5).

QD5’s executive vice president, Tilo Kunz, told officials from the Defense Information Systems Agency that possibly as soon as 2025, the world would arrive at what has been dubbed “Q-day,” the day when quantum computers make current encryption methods useless. Machines vastly more powerful than today’s fastest supercomputers would be capable of cracking the codes that protect virtually all modern communication, he told the agency, which is tasked with safeguarding the US military’s communications.