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stickybar--newsletter js-stickybar\" readability=\"0.82\"> <button class=\"stickybar__close js-stickybar-close\" aria-controls=\"stickybar\"> <svg class=\"icon icon--close\" width=\"21\" height=\"22\" viewBox=\"0 0 21 22\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"m.822.518-.805.805L9.695 11 .017 20.678l.805.805 9.678-9.678 9.677 9.678.806-.805L11.305 11l9.678-9.677-.806-.805-9.677 9.677L.822.518Z\" fill=\"currentColor\" \/><\/svg> <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Close<\/span> <\/button> <\/section>\n<article class=\"single-article content\">\n<div class=\"single-article__container js-single-article-content\">\n<header class=\"single-article__header \" readability=\"25.984435797665\">\n<div class=\"single-article__header-content\" readability=\"34.561363636364\">\n<ul class=\"single-article__eyebrow\">\n<li class=\"single-article__category\"> <a class=\"single-article__category-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/news\/cybersecurity\/\"> <span>Cybersecurity<\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> Federal agencies can spare themselves interoperability heartburn tomorrow by testing post-quantum encryption algorithms in live conditions today, official says. <\/p>\n<p>  <br \/>\n<audio id=\"audio-player\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-tts-cdn.api.scpnewsgrp.com\/cyberscoop\/82371\/english.openai.mp3\"><\/audio> <\/p>\n<div readability=\"11\">\n<div>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<p>0:00<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<p> <span id=\"tts-tooltip\">Learn more.<\/span> <span> This feature uses an automated voice, which may result in occasional errors in pronunciation, tone, or sentiment. <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>  <\/div>\n<div class=\"single-article__cover-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"single-article__cover\"> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1\" class=\"single-article__cover-image wp-post-image\" alt decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=252,168 252w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=506,337 506w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=1013,675 1013w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-2.jpg?resize=1265,843 1265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1013px) 100vw, 1013px\"><figcaption> President Biden listens to IBM CEO Arvind Krishna as he tours the IBM facility in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Oct. 6. IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna announced a $20 billion investment in quantum computing, semiconductor manufacturing and other high-tech areas in its New York state facilities. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN\/AFP via Getty Images) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"single-article__content\">\n<div class=\"single-article__content-inner has-drop-cap\"> <html readability=\"43.459524768425\"><body readability=\"87.697532261716\"><\/p>\n<p>A White House official warned federal agencies Wednesday not to wait until their new post-quantum encryption algorithms are deployed in production to test them.<\/p>\n<p>Agencies have been slowly working to integrate into federal IT systems new encryption algorithms that can defend against future hacks from quantum computers, but the White House wants to make sure the new protections don\u2019t lead to major glitches when they\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/fedscoop.com\/cyber-officials-cite-legacy-systems-as-post-quantum-readiness-challenge\/\">deployed to legacy systems<\/a> and environments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are now at the stage where it\u2019s critical that folks start to test the algorithms on their production systems. I was very specific there: production systems, not test systems,\u201d Nick Polk, branch director for federal cybersecurity at the Executive Office of the President, said during CyberTalks, presented by CyberScoop. \u201cOur [Pentagon] friends like to say no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and I think we can pretty safely say that no cryptographic algorithm will survive first contact with some of our networks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cherilyn Pascoe, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology\u2019s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, said \u201cno one knows exactly\u201d when a quantum computer capable of breaking traditional encryption will emerge on the scene. U.S. officials believe adversarial nations may already be harvesting encrypted data from American organizations in the hopes of breaking them later with a quantum computer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--inline_1 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Pascoe said her agency has worked with the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and 40 other organizations to develop migration guidance and develop testing tools to identify vulnerable implementations of cryptography on federal networks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re also doing some really interesting interoperability testing to test how those new standards will work with existing internet protocols, existing internet standards so we can really build this confidence in this system and for vendors to quickly move to roll out new products that support\u201d post-quantum systems, Pascoe said.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government, led by NIST, has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scworld.com\/analysis\/nist-unveils-four-algorithms-that-will-underpin-new-quantum-proof-cryptography-standards\">working for years<\/a> to develop new forms of encryption that could withstand hacking from a quantum computer.<\/p>\n<p>It hasn\u2019t always been a smooth ride. Because a quantum computer capable of breaking traditional encryption remains a mostly theoretical concept today \u2014 most experts believe we are still years away at best from such a development \u2014 the algorithms designed to protect against them are also built on a series of assumptions about how those computers will work.<\/p>\n<p>While NIST has <a href=\"https:\/\/fedscoop.com\/nist-releases-three-encryption-standards\/\">approved a handful of post-quantum algorithms<\/a> to underpin federal systems, some of those systems have later been found to have damaging \u2014 and sometimes fatal \u2014 flaws that are exploitable with traditional computers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--inline_1 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Last year, researchers at the KTH Royal Institute in Sweden announced they had found a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scworld.com\/analysis\/post-quantum-algorithm-attack\"> novel side channel attack<\/a> capable of breaking implementations of CRYSTALS-Kyber, one of a handful of \u201cpost-quantum\u201d public key encryption algorithms chosen by NIST. <\/p>\n<p>However, a NIST official said at the time that the flaw identified in the Swedish paper did not represent a fundamental weakness in CRYSTALS-Kyber or represent a broader threat to other implementations.<\/p>\n<p>NIST officials have said every stage of their multi-round post-quantum encryption selection process involved the discovery of at least one previously unknown vulnerability affecting some of the algorithms. Other vulnerabilities could emerge, or a future quantum computer capable of breaking classical encryption may behave in ways researchers don\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s why NIST felt it was important to approve multiple algorithms with different designs, a way of ensuring that the future safety of encrypted federal data isn\u2019t reliant on any one particular approach.<\/p>\n<p>Polk said that while the migration process in the federal government will take time, agencies can save a lot of heartburn by ensuring they\u2019re interoperable with critical systems beforehand.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--inline_1 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cNo agency wants to get that call from their secretary saying, \u2018Hey, I logged in trying to get my email, it\u2019s not working, why isn\u2019t it working, can you fix it now?\u201d Polk said. \u201cDon\u2019t wait for that to actually figure out that maybe the encryption algorithm you put in isn\u2019t going to operate in the way that you thought it would.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/body> <\/p>\n<footer class=\"single-article__footer\" readability=\"3.5839416058394\">\n<div class=\"author-card\" readability=\"13\">\n<div class=\"author-card__avatar\">\n<figure class=\"author-card__image-wrap\"> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-card__image\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption-1.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\" alt=\"Derek B. Johnson\"> <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h4 class=\"author-card__name\">Written by Derek B. Johnson<\/h4>\n<p> Derek B. Johnson is a reporter at CyberScoop, where his beat includes cybersecurity, elections and the federal government. Prior to that, he has provided award-winning coverage of cybersecurity news across the public and private sectors for various publications since 2017. Derek has a bachelor\u2019s degree in print journalism from Hofstra University in New York and a master\u2019s degree in public policy from George Mason University in Virginia. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"single-article__tags-container\">\n<h4 class=\"single-article__tags-title\">In This Story<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<p> <\/html><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"single-article__ads js-single-article-sidebar\">\n<div class=\"ad ad--sidebar js-single-article-sidebar-5 ad--rightrail_1 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ad ad--sidebar js-single-article-sidebar-4 ad--rightrail_2 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ad ad--sidebar js-single-article-sidebar-3 ad--rightrail_3 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> 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{"id":6014,"date":"2024-10-30T16:08:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T21:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/?p=82371"},"modified":"2024-10-30T16:08:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T21:08:22","slug":"white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/2024\/10\/30\/white-house-to-agencies-dont-wait-to-test-your-post-quantum-encryption\/","title":{"rendered":"White House to agencies: Don\u2019t wait to test your post-quantum encryption"},"content":{"rendered":"