Cryptography – securing data with mathematical principles – is crucial in today's society, for instance to enable financial transactions, to secure medical records and to protect our national interests. In the future, computers could be built, based on principles from quantum physics. These computers threaten to undermine the foundations of modern cryptography. If we are to believe the popular media and a number of companies, this quantum age is rapidly approaching. Along with the ambiguity, anxiety also grows. This talk aims to clarify this complex matter. It discusses the basics of quantum computers, the complexity of building them, the threat they pose, and the preparations we need to make.
Kristof Verslype
Smals
Kristof obtained in 2011 a PhD of Engineering at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium), a top-50 ranked university in the world. He focused on attribute-based credentials and zero-knowledge proofs to improve citizens’ privacy. Since 2011, he works at the research team of Smals, which provides IT services to the Belgian public services. At Smals, he works on several topics such as distributed trust, blockchain, advanced pseudonymization and quantum resistant cryptography. More info at www.smalsresearch.be and www.cryptov.net