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Travis L. Swaim
Abstract
With the advent of quantum computing on the horizon computer security organizations are
stepping up research and development to defend against a new breed of computer power.
Quantum computers pose a very real threat to the global information technology infrastructure of
today. Many security implementations in use are based on the difficulty for modern-day
mathematician Peter Shor’s, a quantum computer can compute large integer factoring in
polynomial time versus classical computing’s sub-exponential time. This theoretical exponential
increase in computing speed has prompted computer security experts around the world to begin
preparing by devising new and improved cryptography methods. If the proper measures are not
in place by the time full-scale quantum computers are being produced, the world’s governments
and major enterprises could suffer from security breaches and the loss of massive amounts of
encrypted data. Cryptographers are discussing alternatives to today’s methods and have agreed
that there are four major candidates that would provide immunity from a quantum computer
attack. The four possible replacement methods include: error-correcting codes, hash-functions,
Introduction
Computer security and protecting valuable information has long been a delicate subject in
the world of information technology. With the development of the Internet, companies had to
ensure that customer data as well as their internal private data was protected from outside
intrusions; the secure socket layer (SSL) protocol was the first step toward allowing for the
secure transmission of information from client to server and vice versa. Data encryption became
a requirement for day-to-day operations of any organization connected to the Internet and thus
computers came “online” and companies began to realize competing in the global market of the
Internet was becoming a necessity. Encryption of data for many IT systems today relies on
Diffie and Martin Hellman in 1976 (Diffie & Hellman, 1976). This new method of encryption
had two main purposes, encryption and digital signatures. It entails that each person (or
communicating system) gets a pair of keys, one was dubbed the public key and the other was
named the private key. The public key is shared between the two parties and is used for
identifying the end-user while the private key remains a secret and is never transmitted.
Encrypted information is sent using the public key to identify the source but only a receiver that
possesses the private key is able to decode the message. Unfortunately, the private key, while
kept a secret from prying eyes, is linked to the public key through a mathematical algorithm
therefore presenting a weakness to this system. This “weakness” in the system became less and
less of an issue due to the complexity of being able to solve the algorithm for common computer
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 4
systems. Even when utilizing a “brute force” technique (a.k.a. systematically trying every
combination of letters, numbers, and symbols), a strongly ciphered public-key encryption system
remains untouchable by even today’s most powerful computer systems. The complexity of
arriving at a solution arises due to the inability for today’s processors to factor increasingly
larger and larger integers, the basis for the strongest breeds of encryption to date. To put this
into a clearer context, researchers were able to successfully factor a 768-bit RSA modulus cipher
using the number field sieve factoring method which would have taken a single-core 2.2 GHz
AMD Opteron processor with 2 GB of RAM over 1500 years to process (Kleinjung, et al., 2010).
It is this length of time that makes breaking today’s most heavily encrypted data such a daunting
Quantum computing presents the first serious risk associated with actually providing a
means to break the most sophisticated of encryption systems in use today. Utilizing atoms as
pseudo bits of digital information, binary processing can be achieved in a much more
sophisticated fashion than is currently possible. Quantum bits, or “qubits”, can take on the value
of 1 or 0 as the traditional digital bit does; the complexity arises as these qubits can also take on
the value for everything between 0 and 1 at the same time. This ability allows for a single qubit
to represent every possible value between 0 and 1 simultaneously, thus permitting computations
In this paper, we will explore the history of quantum computing theory and the
functional system today. We’ll also explore the practical applications for quantum computers
and how they could affect current cryptographic systems as well as how they are shaping the
development of new systems. Cryptography will remain a central focal point throughout delving
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 5
into varying theories and methods cryptography organizations are testing and implementing to
defend against massive computing power at an atomic scale. Current methods of cryptography
are in danger due to this unique type of threat and security organizations are realizing that they
can no longer sit idle waiting for the first quantum computer to be produced before acting.
Preparation must begin now if the world is to have any hope of converting over from the
encryption techniques that we rely on every day to new and improved quantum computer proof
methods of tomorrow.
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 6
The idea of a quantum computer began in the early 1980s and was conceived by Paul
Benioff, Charles Bennett, David Deutsch, Richard Feynman, and Yuri Manin (Bacon & Leung,
2007). The original idea of such a system was purely theoretical and scientists were basing these
ideas on years of research into quantum theory and information science. Scientists speculated
that if technology was to continue following Moore’s Law (the observation that steady
new integrated circuits every 18 months (Moore's law)) that eventually the size of circuitry on
chips would be reduced to the size of no more than a few atoms. At this size, the workings of an
integrated circuit would be governed by the laws of quantum mechanics and thus the researchers
began to question if a new kind of computer could be created based around the study of quantum
physics.
In 1982, Richard Feynman constructed an abstract model showing how a quantum system
would function and be used for doing computational work. Basically, a classical bit in
computing is used to represent two different states of an information processing machine. One
could refer to a bit as a type of light switch; rather, a bit can be either “on” or “off”. When a bit
is “off” it is said to have the value of 0 whereas when it is “on” it is said to have the value of 1.
Quantum computer bits, or “qubits”, can be a 0 or a 1 at the same time. A particle found to be in
this quantum state is said to be in “superposition”; however, the particle will take on a single
location once someone or something observes the particle. The speed advantages of quantum
computers over classical computers were not realized until the early 1990s when David Deutsch
and Richard Jozsa demonstrated that given a quantum computer utilizing the function
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 7
f : {0,1}n {0,1}, we can be assured that the function is either constant (0 or 1), or balanced
(returns 1 for half of the results and 0 for the other half) (Deutsch & Jozsa, 1992). Deutsch and
Jozsa’s algorithm provided a man by the name of Peter Shor the basis for constructing one of the
most well-known and important quantum algorithms the computing world had ever seen.
basis can be taken as “Given an integer N find its prime factors”. Shor realized that utilizing his
theory a quantum computer could “efficiently factor and compute” the solution to large integer
factoring problems (Bacon & Leung, 2007). Shor’s quantum theory works in polynomial-time
unlike the classical factoring algorithm, the general number field sieve, which factors an L-bit
number N in time O(exp(cL1/3 log2/3 L)). The algorithm works by determining the period of the
function f(x) = ax mod N where a is a random chosen number by the quantum computer with no
factors in common with N. After obtaining this period, using number-theoretic techniques we
can now factor N with a high probability of success (Shor, 1997). Using this method for
factoring numbers results in a significant exponential difference in time versus the general
number field sieve method with time being O((log N)3). These extreme differences in time
between classical computers and Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer can be seen in Figure
1. The NFS curve on the left is data gathered from a previous world record, factoring a 530-bit
number in one month on 104 PCs and workstations in 2003 (Van Meter, Itoh, & Ladd, 2005).
The right curve is speculative based on 1,000 times as much computing power of these classical
computers which works out to be around 100 PCs in 2018 based on Moore’s law. We can see
how Shor’s algorithm is much more efficient in factoring than anything that’s currently possible
Figure 1. Scaling of number field sieve (NFS) on classical computers and Shor’s algorithm for factoring on a
quantum computer, using Beckman-Chari-Devabhaktuni-Preskill modular exponentiation with various clock rates.
Both horizontal and vertical axes are log scale. The horizontal axis is the size of the number being factored (Van
Meter, Itoh, & Ladd, 2005).
In 2001, Shor’s algorithm was put to the test by IBM researchers using room temperature
quantum bits (Vandersypen, Steffen, Breyta, Yannoni, Sherwood, & Chuang, 2001). As
insignificant as it sounds, the researchers, utilizing a very primitive quantum computer, were able
to apply Shor’s algorithm to successfully factor 15 giving the results of 3 and 5. They noted that
their experiment could be scaled to a much larger system with more than the 7 qubits they
utilized but that it was intended to simply demonstrate the techniques for the control and
Quantum cryptography has been at the forefront of purposes for developing quantum
computers since the early 1980s. Due to the way the qubits behave when observed, it opened up
the possibility of creating a new form of quantum communication between two parties. Where
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 9
before, transmission of messages relied on the receiver having an encryption key to decode an
encoded message, researchers were able to utilize photons to send a message and detect whether
the message had been viewed along the way. While this method does not prevent an
eavesdropper from reading the message, it created a way for both the sender and receiver to
A cryptographic application of a quantum system was one of the earliest ideas involved
with quantum computation and can be accredited to Stephen Wiesner in the 1960s. Wiesner
developed a theory that was meant to prevent counterfeiting of money using the laws of physics
as a basis for protection (Bacon & Leung, 2007). His method relied on information that is
encoded in quantum states thereby being able to prevent any outside party from accessing said
information without disturbing the state. This property of quantum information has given birth
to a new method of information exchange and other companies are investing in it to develop new
products giving users the utmost security of knowing if their critical data has been intercepted or
In 2002 and 2003, a Swiss company called id Quantique and an American company
this technology for message transmission and receipt (Bacon & Leung, 2007). These two
companies are noted as marketing the very first quantum key distribution systems. This could be
the preferred method for secure communication of the future instead of relying on a receiver held
private key utilized in systems based on the famous RSA crypto architecture for example.
Larger organizations are also starting to invest in quantum technologies, such as Hewlett-
Packard, Microsoft, IBM, Lucent, Toshiba and NEC; each have active research programs
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exploring how quantum cryptography can be leveraged into their future business models (Bacon
business concerns of these developments remains unclear at the moment, but experience has
shown that the industry needs many years to replace legacy systems – you cannot easily change
ATMs and mainframe applications,” says Andrea Simmons of Computer Weekly (Simmons,
2009). At this point, it’s not really an “if quantum computers come to be” it’s “when they come
to be”, will we be prepared? Research is happening right now and scientists are getting closer to
understanding the hardest questions plaguing quantum computers; in the next section, we’ll take
a look at this research and some of the concerns and issues scientists are dealing with today.
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 11
Many advances in research being conducted on the creation of quantum computers have
lead industry and educational sector experts to believe that the technology could be just around
the corner. “Quantum computational devices with calculating power greater than any of today’s
conventional computers could be just a decade away, says Bristol University physicist and
electrical engineer Mark Thompson,” (Docksai, 2011). Thompson aided in the development of
two quantum photonic computer chips which process photons to provide what IBM
accomplished in 2001 with factoring the integer 15. This shows how technology advancements
over the past ten years has allowed past research findings to be minimized into a form factor that
Organizations delving into quantum computer development are faced with a number of
different methods for developing quantum systems. These varying methods each have their
advantages and disadvantages regarding factors such as scalability, longevity, and accuracy.
Current forerunners in the area include ion-trap quantum computers and NMR (nuclear magnetic
resonance) quantum computers. First, we’ll look at the ion-trap method and the current research
Standards and Technology. An ion-trap can be described as using a line of N trapped ions where
each ion has two stable or metastable states; there are also N laser beam pairs each interacting
with one of the ions (a qubit) (Steane, 1996). It is these laser beams that essentially program the
qubits by providing a pulsing form of a quantum logic gate. This is very similar to how a
transistor works by switching a classical bit from 1 to 0 and vice versa. Scientists are looking
collection of these ion-traps. The QCCD method was proposed as a possible solution to the
limitations researchers faced on scaling a single ion-trap to be able to confine a large number of
ions. Incredible complexities arise technologically and “scaling arguments suggest that this
scheme is limited to computations on tens of ions (Kielpinski, Monroe, & Wineland, 2002). The
advantage of the QCCD method is that by altering voltages of the ion-traps researchers can
confine a set number of ions in each trap or even transport ions to another trap (Kielpinski,
Monroe, & Wineland, 2002). This allows for the scaling of a multiple ion-trap quantum
computer to be achieved much easier. QCCD ion-trap quantum computers still have a long way
to go to be a feasible and scalable method for developing these machines. If we look at the size
of the very first computers taking up multiple rooms and compare this with where these quantum
computers are, we can see that in a few decades these machines will follow Moore’s law and
decrease substantially in size while increasing in power. “Build the first one and in 25 years, they
will be 25% of the size. I bet that, after the first quantum computer, the cost of one 10 years later
The United States Government is funding the research at NIST on QCCD ion-trap
quantum computers because they realize the implications that could arise should a country gain
quantum computational power before them. The country that first develops a full-scale quantum
computer will have the power to crumble current encryption methods and expose an
unbelievable amount of data in a very short amount of time. Achieving the technology to build a
fully functional quantum computer “is among the great technological races of the 21st century, a
race whose results may profoundly alter the manner in which we compute (Bacon & Leung,
2007). In the book, The Quest for the Quantum Computer by Julian Brown and David Deutsch,
the authors note that “if anyone could build a full-scale quantum computer, it’s possible that he
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 13
or she would be able to access everything from your bank account to the Pentagon’s most secret
files. It’s no surprise, then, that significant funds backing this line of research have come from
such organizations as the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, NATO,
spectroscopy. The aforementioned research done at IBM factoring 15 was done using a NMR
based quantum computer. NMR computers rely on the two spin states of a spin-1/2 atomic
nucleus in a magnetic field; different atoms in a molecule can be singled out and thus a molecule
can actually be used as a quantum computer (Jones, 1998). Each spin-1/2 nucleus provides a
single qubit that is manipulated by multiple logic gates provided by radio frequency fields. To
increase the capabilities of this quantum computer the scientists need only make these logic gates
more complex. As their complexity increases, the qubits can affect other qubits in the computer
and thus allows them to work together as a single computational system. The advantages of this
method arise when looking at the coherence of the qubits in the system. Coherence describes the
ability for the qubits to retain their states despite “noise” from the external environment. “Slow
decoherence is one of the primary attractions of an NMR quantum computer,” (Gershenfeld &
Chuang, 1997).
There are a plethora of different methods, other than the ones mentioned here, that
scientists are working on to bring quantum computing to the next level. As research continues in
these areas, we inch closer to the day that a fully functional quantum processing machine is in
our grasp. The latest research has yielded better error correction with the qubit states, faster
quantum algorithms, and led to the evolution of decoherence and entanglement in quantum
computing.
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 14
Cryptography specialists are beginning to take notice that quantum computing may not be
too far away. Many of the IT industry’s top cryptography experts have predicted that a full-scale
quantum computer could manifest in as little as 10 years (Heger, 2009). The PQCrypto (Post-
Quantum Cryptography) conference was created in 2006 to address and discuss the dangers the
world of computer security may face with the successful creation of quantum computers.
Researchers from all over the world flocked to meet in Leuven, Belgium to begin discussions on
possible alternatives to the most widely used encryption systems. The two most popular
encryption methods in use today are RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) (Heger, 2009).
These two methods both rely on public-key architecture and digital signatures to provide a means
earlier in this paper, the entire public-key architecture is at risk of being obliterated by the
understanding of where experts see cryptography technology heading, let’s take a look at a few
of the quantum-proof methods that have been discussed at past PQCrypto conferences.
The idea of Lamport signatures was first mentioned in a paper by Leslie Lamport from
SRI International on October 18, 1979 (Lamport, 1979) where he discusses the use of one-way
hash functions to generate signatures. The idea behind this type of encryption is that a function
scheme, therefore each time a signed message is generated a new signature must also be created.
Utilizing a hash function to implement this type of crypto system, the text of a message is
efficiently reduced to a much shorter string of bits which is the message signature (Heger, 2009).
Researchers Ray Perlner and David Cooper (2009) from the National Institute of Standards and
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 15
Technology explain the basics to the Lamport signature in their paper on quantum resistant
public-key cryptography:
In the simplest variant of Lamport signatures, the signer generates two high-entropy
secrets, S 0,k and S 1,k , for each bit location, k, in the message digest that will be used for
signatures. These secrets (2n secrets are required if the digest is n bits long) comprise the
private key. The public key consists of the images of the secrets under f, i.e., f(S 0,k ) and
example). In order to sign a message, the signer reveals half of the secrets, chosen as
follows: if bit k is a zero, the secret S 0,k is revealed, and if it is one, S 1,k is revealed. The
revealed secrets, concatenated together, comprise the signature. (Perlner & Cooper, 2009)
The reason the Lamport signature is a one-time used architecture is due to the signing method
actually revealing a small amount of information about the private key. This leak of information
is not, however, enough for an attacker to build and sign a forged message but subsequent
messages must be accompanied by a newly generated key to remain secure. The performance of
a system like the Lamport signature is purely dependent on the one-way function the signer
chooses to implement. The original implementation was greatly improved by others as the
nonlinear equations (Heger, 2009). Quantum computers share a weakness with their classical
brethren when trying to solve problems said to be “NP-complete”. Jintai Ding (2008), a top
researcher in MPKCs, notes that “It’s difficult to explain what NP-complete means, but it just
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 16
means very, very difficult. It is exponential, meaning that as the size of a problem increases, the
time to solve it increases exponentially. And quantum computers have not yet been able to
defeat NP-complete types of problems,” (IEEE Spectrum, 2008). A computing machine is only
as powerful as the mathematics behind said machine and when the mathematics has not yet been
developed to solve a problem with efficiency, the problem is said to be NP-hard. Whereas
traditional RSA type cryptosystems rely on mathematics developed in the 17th and 18th centuries
(number theory), MPKCs use 20th century algebraic geometry for their basis (Ding & Schmidt,
2006). Ding and Schmidt (2006) state on MKPCs that, “the method relies on the proven theorem
that solving a set of multivariable polynomial equations over a finite field is in general an NP-
PQCrypto attendees also discussed lattice based cryptography systems which researchers
believe can be implemented in a way that makes for solving the algorithm an NP-complete
problem. “An n-dimensional lattice is the set of vectors that can be expressed as the sum of
integer multiples of a specific set of n vectors, collectively called the basis of the lattice,”
(Perlner & Cooper, 2009). The NP-complete issue for cracking this type of cryptography arises
when increasing the dimensions of the lattices and trying to solve the shortest vector problem
(Ajtai, 1998) as well as the closest vector problem (van Emde Boas, 1981). Both problems
revolve around the difficulty of solving for the shortest vector to a random non-lattice vector.
The fourth and final candidate being researched is encryption schemes based on the use
of error-correcting codes. Basically, the idea behind this type of encryption is that the sender of
the message encrypts the message with noise, or random additional information, therefore
obfuscating the original message. Only the receiver has the ability to “sift” through the
information to deduce the true content of the message. The first error-correcting encryption
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 17
scheme was devised by Robert J. McEliece about one year after the RSA encryption technique
was proposed (Joye, 2009). Many refer to error-correcting encryption schemes as “code-based
cryptography” and researchers Bernstein, Lange, and Peters (2011) state that “code-based
cryptography has lately received a lot of attention because it is a good candidate for public-key
cryptography that remains secure against attacks by a quantum computer,” (Bernstein, Lange, &
Peters, 2011). A major drawback in utilizing this scheme is that the public key is too large due
to the excess data for efficient communication; however, research continues in an attempt to
minimize the required information for public key creation to make this technique a viable
solution.
Of these four completely different techniques, is there a single encryption scheme that
will provide security where the aging encryption schemes fail? Jintai Ding (2008) states on the
matter, “no, I cannot really specify one area. These four systems are all very different and each
has its own advantages and disadvantages,” (IEEE Spectrum, 2008). Researchers from all over
the world continue to meet at the PQCrypto conference, held every few years, to discuss the
latest findings on each of the aforementioned methods as well as new potential candidates.
While they may disagree on when quantum computing is coming, they all seem to agree that
there is a sense of urgency to develop encryption schemes that will be ready for when it does:
Quantum cryptography may be five years ahead; quantum computing may be 15 years
find new methods, so it is slow, but the theory is solid. We should be starting now to
Conclusion
With the widespread use of RSA and DES cryptography systems across the world, the
fear of a single computer being able to knock them out in minutes is growing. Regardless if
quantum computing is a few years or decades away, researchers caution that we need to be
prepared. The PQCrypto conference was formed due to the growing need to address this very
issue. The sheer potential power that a single quantum computer could possess in the size of a
molecule is staggering, to say the least. With computing moving into the realm of quantum
physics, a new breed of computer scientists are being born; individuals who must fully
understand the difference between a classical binary bit and the all-encompassing qubit. The
algorithms being created to run on quantum computers blends the worlds of quantum mechanics,
quantum theory, mathematics, and computer science together into one wide-spread area of study.
Computer security of the future may very well rely on these scientists and researchers.
Quantum computing is edging closer every day with many countries participating in the
“race” for the ultimate computing power. Governments of the world realize that it is not a
technology to take lightly and they cannot afford to fall behind on their research into this area.
As we discussed earlier, the U.S. Government has invested into the development of quantum
computing and hopes that the researchers are close to accomplishing their goals. Meanwhile,
implementing and using 30-40 year old encryption techniques based on severely outdated
mathematic algorithms. Large scale IT projects are both time consuming and costly to any
profit-seeking business and to expect these behemoths to switch over to a new standard the same
day quantum computers begin to hit the market will be disastrous. These massive entities need
to at least start having discussions or following the research into quantum-proof cryptography so
QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CRYPTOGRAPHY TODAY 19
when the time comes they are not caught off-guard. Michelle Mosca (2010), deputy director of
the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, comments on when quantum
computing is coming and the risks involved, "We don't know. Is that an acceptable risk? I don't
think so. So we need to start figuring out what alternatives to deploy since it takes many years to
As this paper has outlined, cryptography organizations are and will continue to explore
alternatives to the quantum computer risks. Because of the uncertainty of the timeline
cryptographers are working with, they realize that it’s not an acceptable risk to continue ignoring
the possibilities. Even if quantum computers are 20 years off into the future, that is a relatively
short amount of time when working with such complex systems that so much of our world’s
infrastructure relies upon. Cryptography is one area that must remain ahead of technology,
which is why it is such a difficult field of study; nonetheless, it is here to stay and personal,
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