NIST’s Quantum Breakthrough: Single Photons Produced on a Chip

NIST has developed a chip that reliably emits a single photon on demand. This ability will improve the efficiency of QKD (quantum key distribution) as we prepare for the arrival of quantum computers.

Quantum computers will upend current cryptology by using Shor’s algorithm to rapidly negate the current public/private key secure encryption methods. This has largely been solved by NIST’s post quantum cryptology (PQC) algorithms.

Knowledge of this future is driving the ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ spate of data exfiltration – companies may not even know their encrypted data has been stolen. But adversaries, including, if not primarily, nation state adversaries, are storing that data knowing they will be able to decrypt it in the future; and who knows how many vital secrets may be within it?

The arrival of quantum computing is future, but the threat is current. Commercial and federal organizations need to protect against quantum ...