UK cybersecurity agency warns about danger from quantum hackers
Energy companies, transport firms, and other organisations are being told to protect their systems from powerful new computers.
The UK’s cybersecurity agency is warning organisations to defend themselves against “quantum hackers” by 2035. This is because big improvements in computing could soon break the digital security we use today.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has shared new advice. It recommends that large organisations, like energy and transport companies, start using “post-quantum cryptography.” This will help stop hackers from using quantum computers to break into their systems.
The NCSC explained that quantum computers, which are still being developed, will be able to easily solve the complex math problems used in current encryption methods. These methods are used to keep things like mobile phones and online banking safe. Quantum computers can process numbers extremely fast, which makes them a real danger to today’s security systems, the NCSC said.
The agency explained that today’s encryption methods, which protect things like banking and secure messages, rely on math problems that normal computers find hard to solve. But quantum computers could solve these problems much faster, which means current encryption might no longer be safe.
The NCSC is advising big organisations, key infrastructure operators (like energy and transport services), and companies with custom IT systems to start using post-quantum cryptography to protect against this risk.
According to the advice, organisations should find out which services need to be updated by 2028. They should finish the most important updates by 2031 and fully switch to the new encryption system by 2035.
“Our new advice gives organisations a clear plan to protect their data from future threats, making sure today’s sensitive information stays safe in the future,” said Ollie Whitehouse, the NCSC’s chief technical officer.
Normal computers store information in bits, which are either a 0 or a 1. But quantum computers use qubits, which can be both 0 and 1 at the same time. This allows quantum computers to process many possibilities at once and perform much larger calculations than traditional computers.
But qubits are very sensitive and can be easily disturbed by small things like tiny temperature changes or cosmic rays. This is one big reason why no one has built a large quantum computer yet, even though tech companies have spent a lot of money trying. The NCSC hopes its new advice will help organisations prepare early for the time when quantum computers are finally ready.
“Since there are now new ways to do public key encryption, it’s better to switch to them now instead of waiting until the threat becomes real,” said Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity professor at Surrey University.
Published: 20th March 2025
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