France exams “post-quantum” encryption of diplomatic messages

(AFP) – The French Embassy in Washington has despatched the primary message from the diplomatic service hid utilizing encryption designed to face up to future quantum computer systems, President Emmanuel Macron mentioned on Thursday.

“Tomorrow a sufficiently highly effective quantum pc will be capable to break all cryptographic algorithms and decode our messages,” Macron wrote on Twitter.
“To counter this menace, growing post-quantum encryption applied sciences is a strategic difficulty. And that is what we’re doing!”

Quantum computing is a burgeoning know-how that mixes advances in scientific understanding of the subatomic world with advances in info principle to resolve mathematical issues which might be inconceivable for standard computer systems in the present day.

Whereas conventional computer systems course of info in bits which might be represented by 0 or 1, quantum computer systems use qubits, which is usually a mixture of each on the similar time, permitting them to resolve extra advanced issues.

Despatched on Wednesday, the primary “post-quantum” encrypted message from France was comparatively banal, containing a memorandum on cooperation with the US within the discipline.

In a press release, the International Workplace in Paris mentioned the encrypted communication was despatched utilizing know-how from a startup referred to as CryptoNext.

France has dedicated 150 million euros ($157 million) to quantum-resistant cryptography, the ministry added, as a part of a wider 1.8 billion-euro effort to develop every kind of applied sciences. quantum.

The transfer “is a precursor to modifications in France’s vital digital infrastructure,” the assertion mentioned, promising a authorities “motion plan” for “post-quantum cryptography migration” within the first quarter of 2023.

The White Home launched its personal plan in Might for intelligence businesses and companies to transition to post-quantum cryptography.