quantum computer and Encryption, page-8

A quantum computer would obsolete the majority of the Internet's security infrastructure overnight. In the event somebody broke RSA, (the foundation of SSL), the upheaval would be unimaginable, your holding in a small company like senetas would be the least of your concerns that day. But even though it MIGHT obsolete all of senetas algorithms, the fact is senetas customers would probably do better than most during that zero day, for two main reasons:

1. Security through obscurity. Whoever breaks RSA gets to be god for a week until the world finishes upgrading its infrastructure to use quantum-robust encryption. Reverse engineering a proprietary algorithm with as little market penetration as senetas' is not a good use of their time, which brings me to:

2. Its proprietary. Kerckhoffs principle states that a cryptosystem should be robust to attack from an attacker that has a complete understanding of said system. However, even so, keeping your cards close to your chest by keeping your algorithm proprietary means that even if your attacker has the power that comes with a machine that can solve large number factorisation - the basis of most modern cryptosystems - they will still need to do some footwork to figure out how to apply that power to he algorithm in front of them if they have never seen it before or aren't even sure what it is. Quantum computers are still just computers after all, they crunch numbers not do complex problem solving.

Could a quantum computer break senetas algorithms? Maybe. Depends what maths they are backed with. That said, they aren't explicitly advertised as robust to attacks by quantum computers, I figure you would advertise that if it were the case. Or maybe its just nobody is worried about that yet.

Would a quantum computer breaking senetas algorithms render their product portfolio worthless? Pretty much, yeah.

Will senetas algorithms be broken by the first quantum hacker? Unlikely, see points 1 and 2 - they probably wouldn't bother unless we had huge market share.

Will you have bigger problems on the day this happens? Absolutely.

Hope that helps.