Google is dramatically shortening its readiness deadline for the arrival of Q Day, the point at which existing quantum computers can break public-key cryptography algorithms that secure decades’ worth of secrets belonging to militaries, banks, governments, and nearly every individual on earth.
In a post published on Wednesday, Google said it is giving itself until 2029 to prepare for this event. The post went on to warn that the rest of the world needs to follow suit by adopting PQCâshort for post-quantum cryptographyâalgorithms to augment or replace elliptic curves and RSA, both of which will be broken.
The end is nigh
âAs a pioneer in both quantum and PQC, itâs our responsibility to lead by example and share an ambitious timeline,â wrote Heather Adkins, Googleâs VP of security engineering, and Sophie Schmieg, a senior cryptography engineer. âBy doing this, we hope to provide the clarity and urgency needed to accelerate digital transitions not only for Google, but also across the industry.â