An interesting trend is taking place in the world of data hacking. Hackers are greedily collecting untold volumes of encrypted data knowing they cannot use it today. While this may seem confusing, it is no surprise to many data security professionals, and it can only indicate huge trouble for people who think their data is secure.
It also shows that the hackers know two key facts the average person tasked with protecting an organization’s data does not. Those facts are:
- Every data encryption technology has an expiration date. A point in time when others can easily decrypt the secrets it protects.
- Due to rapid advances in quantum computers, that date for many popular encryption techniques is nearing at an alarming rate.
Another reality is that in all likelihood, we will not know when that date has arrived. In fact, the encryption technology you use could already have been compromised and you don’t know it.
Booz Allen Hamilton recently published a report titled Chinese Threats in the Quantum Era. In there they state:
“The outsized threat of a rival state possessing the ability to decrypt any data using current public-key encryption rapidly generates high risk”
To be clear, they did not think this capability would be achieved before 2030 but clearly, they won’t know when it happens, nor can they predict what advances in quantum computing are just around the corner.
However, there are always some people who have a better idea of what is coming than the rest of us. One such person, an angel investor who is very well placed in the quantum computing field, told me a freight train bearing down on us all at full speed would be a pretty good metaphor.
Without a doubt, the impacts on society as a whole, once quantum computers result in the exposure of massive troves of previously protected data, will make today’s data breaches seem quaint in comparison.
This is one reason why the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) is releasing Post-Quantum Cryptography standards. While solutions such as this will be essential for critical, national-security, data, implementation of these standards will be a huge stretch for the typical organization which is stretched thin trying to use today’s relatively simple encryption technology.
Today’s challenges and concerns match those we had in 2017 when we started designing and building the Anonomatic technology. This is why we created our patented Poly-Anonymization® solution. We wanted to ensure that fifty, or even a hundred, years from now, no hacker would be able to decipher the data we protect. We also wanted to solution which was quick and simple to implement and which would be affordable to everyone. With PII Vault, we believe we have delivered on our goals.
How do we do it? Poly-Anonymization removes all identifying details from the data you need to protect but still allows you to use it as if it were identified. You get all the value and usability you need from your data but none of the risk of storing encrypted data. To put is simply, a hacker cannot steal what you do not have.
Contact us to see how PII Vault can keep your identified data safe from hackers and allow you full use of all your data.