What’s the difference between white hat and black hat hacking?

<span data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"In an effort to distinguish the good hackers from the bad, the terms “white hat” and “black hat” have become part of the vernacular. A white hat hacker uses his or her skills to improve computer security, while the black hat hacker uses their power for disruptive behavior that breaks or breaches security."}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":4483,"3":{"1":0},"4":{"1":2,"2":16777215},"10":2,"11":4,"15":"Arial"}">In an effort to distinguish the good hackers from the bad, the terms “white hat” and “black hat” have become part of the vernacular. A white hat hacker uses his or her skills to improve computer security, while the black hat hacker uses their power for disruptive behavior that breaks or breaches security.

What is post-quantum cryptography?

The term post quantum cryptography refers to cryptographic algorithms that are believed to be secure against an attack by quantum computers.

Are today’s quantum computers capable of breaking encryption algorithms?

The threat that quantum computing poses is to the security of public key algorithms. Most symmetric, cryptographic algorithms and hash functions are believed to be relatively secure against attacks by quantum computers. To break current cryptographic systems, quantum computers must have between 500 and 2,000 qubits, which depends on the algorithm key length. However, existing quantum computers that we know only operate with less than 15 qubits at present.

What cybersecurity challenges does quantum computing pose?

It has been known for over 30 years that the existence of a large-scale, general-purpose quantum computer would render existing public-key cryptography (both encryption and digital signatures) insecure. While this sounds quite bad, note that it is currently unclear when such quantum computers might become available. Part of the problem is that an attacker can record and store encrypted data now, and then use a quantum computer – when one becomes available – to break the encryption and recover the underlying data.

Jonathan Katz IEEE Member

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