Effective Cybersecurity Needs Quantum Computing

Without it, hacking is faster and cheaper than protecting networks or patching them afterward.

Despite investing $80 billion in cybersecurity over the past five years, the U.S. government utterly failed to detect, much less prevent, a stunning Russian cyber aggression. Sensitive agency and private networks were compromised. As the Biden administration decides how to respond tactically, a strategic question looms: How can the U.S. attain reliable cybersecurity?

The cyber realm is “offense-dominant”: Hacking into networks is easier, faster and cheaper than protecting or patching them. Most networks are meant to enable information sharing, making it difficult and potentially self-defeating to prevent access.

The expansion of remote work, which is likely to persist, has made the problem worse.

The U.S. has at last come to see that retaliating in kind could deter Russian cyberattacks. But if deterrence fails, escalation will be perilous. How, then, can we secure cyberspace against mounting threats? With existing technology, we probably can’t.

A solution may lie in quantum technology.

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