Total global spending on cybersecurity and associated risk management will amount to more than $150 billion by the end of the year, according to IT research consultancy Gartner – and among those billions, the segment fastest growing is cloud-based security measures.
The time has come to replace our current encryption keys and associated algorithms, but the question remains:what are we replacing them with? I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a fan of Symmetric Key Encryption (SKE), mainly because it's so much faster than its counterparts, and because it assumes a zero-trust security posture – a no-brainer in an age where a small business is successfully hacked every 19 seconds (Hiscock, 2018).
Why do I think symmetric key is the best option for encryption, especially given the impending "ramp-up of machines" that quantum computers pose to security officials? Keep reading to find out!
What is SKE?
Most of you reading this are already familiar with the types of encryption and algorithms available, but just in case:SKE uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt data, with both keys private and known only to relevant parties (no public key). It's much faster and in some ways more secure, especially with larger datasets (handling huge amounts of data is what pretty much any large organization or, say, , a government). When you use SKE with the AES algorithm (a symmetric block cipher created for the US government), for example, it's a pretty airtight approach:banks can protect themselves against fraud in card transactions, governments can ensure that their defense and intelligence personnel are not vulnerable to identity fraud or compromised devices. But above all, it is used to manage cloud security.
SKE vs. AKE
Asymmetric Key Encryption (AKE) occurs when only one key is private and only one is public:the public key encrypts the message and the private key, held by the recipient of the data, decrypts it. In some ways it's more secure than SKE, mainly because there are two different keys, plus a few other considerations. The big downside to AKE, however, is speed:it's a slower and more expensive process, which means it's just not the right one for anyone who needs to process large amounts of data – which, again, is most organizations these days. That said, most organizations have varying data and security needs and, if they're smart, will use a combination of both approaches for the tightest approach traditionally available.
What about post-quantum algorithms (PQA)?
Let's talk about PQAs, which many see as a new alternative to SKE. This hands-on approach is almost there (there is a really effective cybersecurity tool), seriously consider the threat of cyber computers, but again, using public keys makes this process much slower. And by much slower, I mean that PQAs take 1488 times more processing cycles than symmetric key. That means anyone looking for a new security upgrade would be looking to slow down their x1488 computers. Yikes. If time is money, then slower is not the answer. On top of that, the longer our data takes to process, the more available it is during communications as raw data that can be viewed, retrieved and acted on – that's why we have end-to-end encryption. end. For now, PQAs are too unstable to be used on a large scale.
The best solution, as always, is something that takes into account all aspects of security. This is where Arqit comes in.
Arqit and QuantumCloud
With literal co-inventor of public-key encryption and father of SSL, Dr. Taher Algamal, as senior board director, Arqit has crafted a solution that makes sense for 2021 and beyond. . The British company's PaaS, QuantumCloud™, is a simple yet elegant use of symmetric key encryption used and distributed efficiently.
“Arqit offers an easier and safer way for applications to use the Internet. The layered approach offered by Arqit is really great,” says Algamal.
How it works is to solve SKE's reduced security issues, while retaining its speed AND, surprisingly, taking into account the threat that quantum computers pose to encryption. The relatively cost-effective platform was built with cloud, blockchain, and the Internet of Things in mind, making it ideal for governments, banks, and more. And more importantly, it is proven to be secure (at least in test environments) against quantum computing attacks. But the main USP is that Arqit has found a more secure way to generate symmetric keys – which it does by generating a one-time key with a zero-trust approach.
This innovation really does seem like the encryption upgrade we've been looking for, and this extra layer of protection against quantum computer decryption, which will be here before we know it, is just what the doctor ordered.
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