The intelligence community must protect classified data from the future threat of quantum computing, says a new MITRE report.

In Quantum Computing: Quantifying the Current State of the Art to Assess Cybersecurity Threats, authors Yaakov Weinstein and Brandon Rodenburg note that, in order to prepare for quantum threats, “it is essential to know the current state of the art and try to make data-driven predictions.” The authors also survey US efforts in post-quantum cryptography and detail the need for quantum metrics to help predict the state of the technology.

The report estimates that “a quantum computer capable of breaking RSA-2048 (a current high-security version of RSA with a 2048 bit-long key) will not be available for another three or so decades.” However, others predict faster growth, meaning that powerful quantum computers will be available much sooner.

In any case, the report calls for the intelligence community to:

• Carefully monitor the emergence of quantum computers.
• Identify methods of protecting against the quantum computer threat to classified information.

The US currently leads the way in quantum computing, the report notes, but other nations are not far behind. Additionally, the report cautions that adversarial nations are harvesting encrypted data with the expectation of breaking the encryption once quantum capability is achieved.

Read the full report for more information.