Cybersecurity in a Post-Quantum World: How Quantum Computing Will Forever Change the World of Cybersecurity

Abstract

High Performance Computing (HPC) has recently been considerably improv ed, for instance quantum computing has been developed to achieve high performance computation in many areas, such as medical research, artif icial intelligence, weather forecasting, etc. But it also poses a sign ificant threat to cybersecurity, requiring changes to data encryption methods. Currently, the most widely used asymmetric algorithms are bas ed on difficult mathematical problems, such as factoring large numbers which can take thousands of years on today’s most powerful supercomp uters. The purpose of this paper is to dive into the field of cybersec urity and understand how modern practices will be affected by the adva ncements of quantum computing. In doing so, a fundamental understandin g of modern-day computing, modern-day cybersecurity, and quantum compu ting will need to be established. This, in turn, will build the founda tion to allow for a comprehensive analysis of how powerful quantum-bas ed computing is in comparison to modern-day computing, and how this di sruptive technology will ultimately change the field of cybersecurity on a global scale. In addition, current industry cybersecurity best pr actices will be presented to expose their projected vulnerabilities as well as what can be done in the immediate future to prepare for the e ver-rapid advancements in computing. Finally, conclusions will be extr apolated on what is to come for future generations in the ongoing race between computing and cybersecurity.