A flaw has been found in the most popular encryption algorithm

The Swiss IT company Terra Quantum AG using a quantum computer discovered vulnerabilities in well-known cryptographic protocols. About it reports Bloomberg, citing a company statement.

According to the results of the “breakthrough discovery”, the quantum computer was able to find a loophole to break data encryption.

The loophole is believed to jeopardize the privacy of online data, banking transactions, and email. The company has already said that the opening could have serious consequences for Google, Microsoft and IBM.

Quantum flaw

Terra Quantum AG says it has found flaws in symmetric encryption methods, including the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). In June 2003, the US National Security Agency even ruled that AES could be used to protect state secrets.

The head of the company, Markus Pflich, claims that the company not only found, but also proved the insecurity of encryption algorithms using a quantum computer.

However, some cybersecurity experts are skeptical about the “breakthrough discovery.” They are not ready to admit it until they themselves see the full details of the study.

“At first glance, this seems unlikely. However, it is quite difficult for experts to weigh something without publication, ”said Brent Waters, professor of cryptography at the University of Texas at Austin.

Relativ  threat

However, for bitcoin, the discovery seems unlikely to pose a threat. The AES algorithm is not involved either in the blockchain or in the process of generating private keys. However, this does not mean that ASE has bypassed the crypto industry.

It is known that at least a few industry giants are actively using AES to protect data. For example, it was reported that Coinbase uses the AES-256 algorithm to generate cold wallets, and Blockchain.com uses the algorithm to encrypt the wallets’ backup phrase.

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