Quantum computing is an emerging field with the potential to help solve some of the world’s most complex problems far beyond the reach of today’s computers. But it also introduces cybersecurity threats like Q Day, the moment when a quantum computer becomes powerful enough to break the encryptions that protect the digital world.
Jeff Prevost, PhD, the Cloud Technology Endowed Professor of Computer Engineering and executive director of the Open Cloud Institute and recent appointee to the Texas Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee, sat down with Lorenzo Gomez III of The Cilantro Diaries to take a deeper dive into Q Day and the impact of quantum computing.
The episode includes:
- What Q-Day actually is, and why “harvest now, decrypt later” means your data may already be captured and waiting
- How Shor’s algorithm turns the encryption most of the internet relies on (RSA-2048) into a target
- Why the power grid runs on GPS timing, and what happens if that signal goes down
- The Internet of Things problem: insulin pumps, cars, even a coffee maker running old encryption in their chips
- Why some experts believe quantum computing could become as transformative as AI.
- Post-quantum cryptography, NIST’s new standards, and quantum key distribution as the defense
- The new quantum workforce, from Sandia and Albuquerque to San Antonio’s shot at it
- Superposition, entanglement, and why Einstein called it “spooky action at a distance”
Dive into the world of quantum computing.
