A quantum security leap?

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What is quantum security, what are the real world implications for the enterprise and is it really unbreakable? Davey Winder has been investigating...

The answer is a simple one, it seems. "Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) does not work well in practice" Axelle Apvrille, senior researcher at Fortinet's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Threat Response Team told IT PRO, adding "its limited as the network cannot be more than 200km long and its expensive as it requires optical fibre and dedicated hardware equipment and networks".

In fact, she is so convinced of the limitations of quantum cryptography that she says "I don't think QKD will ever make it to the enterprise. And if I turn out to be wrong, it shouldn't be in the next ten years".

Dave Waterson, chief executive at SentryBay, suggests that right now there is no real need for quantum security anyway, telling us "public/private key encryption is still sufficiently secure" and that until the advent of real-world quantum computers" RSA encryption is still secure and reliable.

Davey Winder
Davey Winder

Davey is a three-decade veteran technology journalist specialising in cybersecurity and privacy matters and has been a Contributing Editor at PC Pro magazine since the first issue was published in 1994. He's also a Senior Contributor at Forbes, and co-founder of the Forbes Straight Talking Cyber video project that won the ‘Most Educational Content’ category at the 2021 European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards.

Davey has also picked up many other awards over the years, including the Security Serious ‘Cyber Writer of the Year’ title in 2020. As well as being the only three-time winner of the BT Security Journalist of the Year award (2006, 2008, 2010) Davey was also named BT Technology Journalist of the Year in 1996 for a forward-looking feature in PC Pro Magazine called ‘Threats to the Internet.’ In 2011 he was honoured with the Enigma Award for a lifetime contribution to IT security journalism which, thankfully, didn’t end his ongoing contributions - or his life for that matter.

You can follow Davey on Twitter @happygeek, or email him at davey@happygeek.com.