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Hackers could steal encrypted data now and crack it with quantum computers later, warn analysts:
Analysts at Booz Allen Hamilton warn that Chinese espionage efforts could soon focus on encrypted data.
Beijing-backed hackers might soon start trying to steal encrypted data -- such as biometric info, the identities of covert spies, and weapons designs -- with a view to decrypting it with a future quantum computer, according to analysts at US tech consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH).
"In the 2020s, Chinese economic espionage will likely increasingly steal data that could be used to feed quantum simulations," the analysts write in the report Chinese Threats in the Quantum Era.
At risk are data protected by the current algorithms underpinning public-key cryptography, which some fear may be rendered useless for protecting data once quantum computers become powerful enough.
The big question is when such a quantum computer might arrive. However, Booz Allen Hamilton's analysts suggest it doesn't matter that an encryption-breaking quantum computer could be years off because the type of data being targeted would still be valuable. Hence, there's still an incentive for hackers to steal high-value encrypted data.
Recent studies suggest it would take a processor with about 20 million qubits to break the algorithms behind public-key cryptography, which is much larger than the quantum processors that exist today. But a quantum computer that threatens today's algorithms for generating encryption keys could be built by 2030.
The report frames the threat from China around its past cyber-espionage campaigns and the nation's ambitions to be a major quantum computing player by mid-2020, as major US tech firms such as Google, IBM, IONQ and others race towards 'quantum supremacy'.
"China's current capabilities and long-term goals related to quantum computing will very likely shape the near-term targets and objectives of its cyber-enabled espionage," the report states.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:21AM (30 children)
Dumbest warning ever. God knows what evil motives sit behind this bullshit.
Hacker steals encrypted data, thinking in 20 years, I will decrypt this with super-duper advanced quantum computers.
Yeah. That stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:48AM (1 child)
https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/it-security/does-using-encryption-make-you-a-bigger-target-for-the-nsa/ [techrepublic.com]
https://threatpost.com/new-nsa-leak-sheds-light-on-encrypted-data-retention/101059/ [threatpost.com]
https://www.justsecurity.org/19308/congress-latest-rules-long-spies-hold-encrypted-data-familiar/ [justsecurity.org]
(Score: 2, Informative) by captain normal on Sunday December 05 2021, @05:09AM
Humm....a bunch of people who make money off of selling security. "You better be afraid but for lots of money we can protect you."
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 5, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Sunday December 05 2021, @05:27AM (26 children)
Long-term thinking is obviously not your strength. Let me assure you, the Chinese are masters in long-term thinking.
Note also that quantum-safe encryption algorithms already exist. [wikipedia.org] It's currently inconvenient to use them, but if you've got important secrets to keep (given your attitude, I sincerely hope that you personally don't), it is worth it anyway.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @05:52AM (23 children)
Intelligence is obviously not your strength.
Steal today's encrypted data so that you can decrypt in 20 years? Maybe good for historical reasons, but for espionage?
Oh good, I am super "assured."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday December 05 2021, @06:01AM (11 children)
You are honestly unable to think of secret information that is still relevant in 20 years?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @06:17AM (8 children)
You are a moron.
What would the Chinese do with a "secret information" 20 years old?
Moron.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Sunday December 05 2021, @07:13AM (2 children)
Funny that you said 20 year old...
You could not imagine what to do with information about 9/11 that isn't public yet? Really?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @08:38AM (1 child)
That's a shill.
Note the grammar.
"Make them feel they need no defenses, and that 20y timespans are too long to think about" is one way to weaken a foe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @11:52PM
Liek omg lol and here I thought I was paranoid.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by janrinok on Sunday December 05 2021, @09:02AM (3 children)
You are the one who is not thinking. First of all, there is much that can be gathered from communications without even knowing a message's content. It is called traffic analysis [wikipedia.org].
However having the contents of those messages revealed - even 20 years later - can give you so much more. Imagine that a potential enemy has a set of procedures to control the launch of nuclear weapons, or has deployed a conventional weapon system into the field. Those procedures are unlikely to change much over time. They may have updates, but the rational behind the procedures will largely be the same. Learning of those procedures 20 years later will provide valuable information. The conventional weapon system will still be in the field - perhaps not in the prime position that it once held - but still operational and possible in use by many other nations by now. Learning of its capabilities and weaknesses is still vital information in defeating that system in times of conflict.
As another comment points out - there is still much information regarding 9/11 which is classified. If that is still worth protecting then that it must contain something of importance. It doesn't matter whether that snippet of information is hidden because it compromises a source, or shows the limits of our current knowledge, or just protects somebody from political embarrassment or criticism, it is all valuable information to a potential enemy today.
There is a lot of information going back further than a mere 20 years which is still classified. It is classified for a reason, and there are those who would be very keen to know what it is and why it is being protected.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Sunday December 05 2021, @10:46AM (2 children)
Heh. Last I checked, there was a bunch of stuff about the JFK assassination which was still classified.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Sunday December 05 2021, @10:51AM
Doh. Just realized that Runaway1956 beat me to this comment. His comment is much more thorough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @02:55PM
I'm sure he'll reveal it when he re-appears in Dallas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:06PM
Find out where ROC stores their nukes?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @12:59PM (1 child)
Governments overclassify everything. It doesn't affect me so I don't care if it gets hacked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @08:30PM
"Analysts at Booz Allen Hamilton"
These 'analysts' are busy trying to convince the public that we should care about something and I'm here trying to figure out why these analysts are anything other than a complete waste of money.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 05 2021, @07:08AM (7 children)
Don't be especially sure of yourself. The early 1960s are a half century behind us. Have you seen the unredacted investigations into Kennedy's assassination? How 'bout the Bay of Pigs? The Tonkin Gulf incident? The spook industry protects it's shit for forever. And, of course, the Department of Defense is almost as bad.
A great aunt was retired CIA. We loved going to visit the old woman, she was as generous with candy, ice cream, watermelon, hugs, and noisy toys as our Grandmother was. Near the end of her life, she acquired a "sitter". Any time she started talking about countries in Asia, the "sitter" would usher everyone out of the house. There were probably other triggers, but I clearly remember Asian countries, and historical names from those countries.
In later years, I wondered what would have happened if I hid in a closet or something when the sitter ordered everyone out of the house. Would she have shot me if/when she discovered that I had listened to national secrets from a senile old woman?
So, yes, I can definitely see national intel agencies capturing signals, and storing them until decryption catches up to encryption tech.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by bradley13 on Sunday December 05 2021, @07:18AM (4 children)
How important is it, really? Suppose your aunt revealed that the US - 40 years ago - overthrew government XYZ? So what? Likely people already suspected it, so the mutterings of an old woman wandering the paths of Alzeihmers are unlikely to add much.
Also, maybe governments should stop doing embarrassing things?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 05 2021, @07:42AM (2 children)
The political value could be immeasurable. Look at CRT and the 1619 project, and the value of mere opinions on 400 year old events.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 07 2021, @12:03AM (1 child)
Runaway discovers morality! Or just more racist cynicism?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 07 2021, @01:31AM
Hello, illiterate wanker fool. GP states clearly that fools (like yourself) don't rely on facts, but on feelz. Run along now, and touch yourself where we don't have to see you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:35PM
mutterings of an old woman wandering the paths of Alzeihmers are unlikely to add much.
as are the mutterings of Runaway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @04:03PM (1 child)
These days I assume the CIA would not provide a "sitter" for a senile former agent. They'd just kill her.
Quick and painless, sure, for one of their own. But dead.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 05 2021, @04:26PM
There are alternatives that don't require murder. When you start killing off former agents, morale of current agents will take a hit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_soldiers'_home [wikipedia.org]
https://www.afrh.gov [afrh.gov]
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Sunday December 05 2021, @07:10AM (2 children)
That depends on the secret you're trying to keep. Thinking back, say, 50 years, if you got the firing codes for nuclear missiles from the 1960s today, it would probably not have a huge impact because even if those missiles still existed, the codes would have been changed by now.
If JFK really was shot by some conspiracy in a government agency, that information would still have some considerable impact today.
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Sunday December 05 2021, @09:18AM (1 child)
No, the firing code is still "00000".
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:00PM
They changed it back? I thought they changed it because it was too difficult for Trump to remember?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 06 2021, @05:20PM (1 child)
AFAIK the quantum computers can't crack the symmetric stuff much faster than normal computers. So they aren't gonna crack my encrypted drives.
They might be able to crack the public key stuff e.g. https, but good luck with that - nowadays most web traffic is https.
I'd be laughing at them if they are spending resources storing and decrypting 20+ years worth of my https traffic. The resources they use for my traffic will be resources they can't use for arguably more interesting targets.
If they are targeting particular organizations they might as well use actual spies to get the secrets ASAP.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday December 07 2021, @11:02AM
Consider the examples given in the summary. Most people are neither covert spies nor involved in weapon design. And those who are tend not to leak out those secrets like a sieve (and if they do, their ability to do so will probably quickly be taken away from them).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday December 05 2021, @06:42PM
Assuming we'll have quantum computers in 20 years. It may take another century. And what good will that data be in 20 years, anyway?
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:25AM
lick it and stick it!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:44AM
The NSA.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:47AM
This seems like an article describing a subset of the data that Beijing-backed hackers steal already.
What I read is this, "China has a large data repository where they save the zetabytes of data their people collect. When they save a file, they update a spreadsheet with what is in it. Its easily searchable and anything can be found. One of the things contained is encrypted files, which they don't currently have the key to. We imagine that if they could crack it, they would."
I imagine Booze Allen has an offering to help you with this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @05:31AM (1 child)
Two more years of this blablabullshit until the opening shots of WW3, according to the Pentagon. GET ON WITH IT and start third impact already. tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down~
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @04:06PM
It all returns to nothing
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @07:44AM
Ha, about mid-year, I found a copy of the /etc/passwd from the first Uni system I had access too in 1989.
Back before salting and shadow were a thing.
Running a password cracker over it on my current-day 8-core 4GHz AMD workstation was practically a no-op.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday December 05 2021, @11:00AM (2 children)
Weak data concerns are for weak. I am more afraid of quantum computers directly changing reality...
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @11:28AM
I'm afraid of the Machine Elves cooming inside your tight behind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @02:41PM
yeah, something like that. tho maybe they just increase the possibility of a calculated future event to infinity? so basically setting a future event in stone.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by rigrig on Sunday December 05 2021, @03:02PM
Good thing that, until now, spies totally weren't storing encrypted data in the hopes of simply getting access to the keys later on.
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @07:29PM
If you encrypted everything on social media, would it be "encrapted"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05 2021, @07:53PM
trying to be like our great American Long Haul server!