It’s a high-tech, high-stakes waiting game.
As Jack Hidary, CEO of Sandbox AQ, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, Financial Institutions (FIs) and all manner of firms still depend on RSA, a public key cryptosystem that is the cornerstone of secure data exchange and transmission of everything underpinned by everything from payments to health information.
However, this algorithm dates back to the late 1970s and represents a key vector for vulnerabilities that can ultimately be defeated by hackers.
That’s especially true when these hackers are armed with turbocharged quantum computing power — and backed by nation-states that have unlimited resources.
Referring to the grand strategy, Hidary said, “They grab the data, they exfiltrate it, they store it and then read it when they have more and better computing power.”
smashed. Grasp. Waiting. They are waiting for quantum computing power to become available, even if it takes years. It’s a business now, decode later…
