The Reason Why Modern Cryptography Is Inherently Vulnerable

Towards understanding how quantum computing threatens cryptography

Did you miss the previous post on why quantum computing threatens encryption?

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We finally invented asymmetric cryptography in the desperate search for secure yet convenient IT security.

It seemed too good to be true. But it turns out that we made a pact with the devil.

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Asymmetric cryptography uses two keys: a public key and a private key. We use the public key to encrypt messages and the private key to decrypt them.

Since the public key can encrypt messages but not decrypt them, we can share this key with anyone. Even with those, we don’t trust! It doesn’t even hurt if an opponent can encrypt a message. After all, what could he do with an encrypted message that only we, the private key owners, can decrypt? All we have to do is keep our private keys safe.

So we willingly gave away our public keys. Furthermore, we’ve built our entire way of communicating on asymmetric cryptography because it’s so convenient.