Economy is barely prepared for quantum crime
«Harvest now, decrypt later» is booming in the cybercrime scene: criminals are already harvesting data that they will only be able to crack in the future using quantum technology.
The United Nations declared 2025 the «International Year of Quantum Science and Technology» to emphasize the importance of quantum technology for humanity (https://quantum2025.org/). «At the same time, quantum computing could become one of the biggest threats to digital civilization,» says James Lee, Regional Director DACH at cyber security company Horizon3.ai, pointing out the dark side of quantum mechanics, which was discovered 100 years ago. Quantum computers will be able to crack all current data encryption methods in just a few years' time.
The «harvest now, decrypt later» (HNDL) method is booming in the cybercrime scene. This means that cyber criminals are already harvesting large volumes of data that they cannot currently use due to the encryption, but assume that they will soon be able to crack the encryption using quantum computing and then use the information.
«This makes it all the more important to protect even highly encrypted data as well as possible today,» emphasizes security expert James Lee. However, a recent survey by Horizon3.ai of 300 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland revealed that awareness of the emerging threat is still limited in the business world.
According to the survey, only 14% of companies classify quantum computing-based attacks as a serious threat. At least 38 percent see quantum technology as a moderate potential threat. 40 percent consider this aspect to be negligible. Interest in protective measures is correspondingly low.
The majority (52%) of the companies surveyed by Horizon3.ai have not yet taken any precautions to encrypt their data in a quantum-secure manner. 44 percent do not intend to change this in the future. 28 percent are at least partially planning to switch to quantum-safe encryption methods or have already taken the first steps in this direction. 22 percent are working with a fixed timetable for the changeover. According to their own information, only 14% of companies have already fully prepared themselves for the fact that cyber criminals will use quantum technology in the future in order to be able to use encrypted data that they have captured.
Source: Horizon3.ai
