- Microsoft reveals new protection against quantum -driven attack
- These updates come to Windows and Linux
- New tools will continue to develop to try to match the threat functions
Quantum computers are currently only found in specialized laboratories – but it is generally understood that this will not be the case for a long time, and the technology could soon be introduced in a variety of industries such as finance, cyber security and even medicine.
The development of quantum calculation presents new challenges for cyber security teams, where technology theorized to have the potential to break encryption and “disturb modern cryptographic algorithms,” Microsoft warned.
To tackle this, Microsoft introduces a “significant milestone” in Journey Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) by making PQC capacities available for Windows Insiders, Canary Channel Build 27852 and Higher and Linux, Symcrypt-Openssl Version 1.9.0.
Symcrypt -Adds
This means that customers will be able to start experimenting with PQC “within their operational environments”.
For Windows, Microsoft brings ML-Kem and ML-DDSA to Windows Insiders through updates to Cryptography API: NEXT GENERATION (CNG) Libraries as well as Certificate and Cryptographic Message Features.
This aims to help developers prepare for “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks. The changes correspond to the NIST standardized algorithms, but will continuously be developed and updated to meet new requirements.
New changes have also been introduced to Linux, with updates for programmers to use Opensssls API surface powered by Symcrypt Cryptographic Operations. Version 1.9.0 allows developers to play with TLS Hybrid Key Exchange to prepare for future threats.
“PQC algorithms are relatively new, and it is careful not to consider the initial generation of PQC algorithms as the final solution, but rather see this as an evolving field,” explains Microsoft.
“This emphasizes the importance of” crypto -agility “, which involves designing solutions to be more resistant to the use of different algorithms and/or upgradable to use future algorithms as the PQ standards develop.”
Researchers believe that quantum calculation can be the ‘largest security threat of time’ and able to break even the toughest existing encryptions – so updates for security will be very necessary for software companies as the technology develops.
