iMessage becomes the canary in the mine for a new type of quantum-resistant encryption
Like the wait for nuclear fusion energy, and Half-Life 3, there has long been speculation that the era of quantum computing is imminent. If – or perhaps when – the breakthrough is finally made, it will signal a major revolution in computing, with the most immediate consequence being that it will render much of our existing digital security obsolete.
“Due to an accident of how quantum computers work, they are going to completely crush the fundamental mathematical problem that sits behind the RSA and the ECC encryption algorithms,” said Tim Callan, chief experience officer at cybersecurity and quantum encryption firm Sectigo.
He explains that quantum computers should be able to crunch the numbers something like ten billion times faster than traditional computers.
“That same thing that would have taken 100,000 years to decrypt will take an hour.”
In other words, that database you thought was secure? Soon it may not be. And that’s why Apple has announced that it’s taking pre-emptive action ahead of what some security professionals call “Q-Day” – the day when quantum computers go from a technology that works in principle, to one that works in practice.
“Q-Day isn’t really a single day,” said Callan. “It’s not like there will be one day where we’re safe and the next day where we’re not safe. It’s going to be more gradual, more subtle, more nuanced than that.”
But the threat of a quantum computing breakthrough is definitely something we need to plan for. “Quantum computers are a very real thing,” said Callan. “We know they work. It’s not weird science. It’s just an engineering project.”
Apple takes action
With the release of iOS 17.4, Apple is rolling out a new form of encryption for iMessage. It is moving from the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve (ECC) algorithms, which are now standard across the industry, to what it calls PQ3, “a ground-breaking post-quantum cryptographic protocol that advances the state of the art of end-to-end secure messaging”.
Apple claims it improves encryption with more complicated maths. RSA and ECC, for example, are ultimately based on factoring integers or solving logarithms – these are tasks that quantum computers will find easy. So “post-quantum” algorithms such as PQ3 are based on solving mathematical probl
