Harvest now, decrypt later attacks put encrypted data in the hands of hackers
Quantum computers are still under development and seen as future technology, but they already cause danger to encrypted data. Seeing a high potential to be able to crack cryptographic keys in the long-term, cybercriminals are intensifying what are known as "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks to accumulate huge quantities of encrypted data and decrypt them once quantum technology is developed enough.
"Current encryption systems are still hard to break, so they are beneficial for ensuring your privacy,” said Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN. “Nevertheless, cybercriminals already target encrypted data even if they cannot crack the decryption. Even though quantum computing is still in the future, it will take years until the global community adapts to the new standard of encryption, so we have to plan the transition to quantum-resistant algorithms now."