Company
Date Published
Author
Luke Valenta, Christopher Patton, Vânia Gonçalves, and Bas Westerbaan
Word count
3428
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

As the global race to develop quantum computers intensifies, concerns arise over the potential threat these machines pose to current cryptographic systems, which secure much of the internet's data. To address this, Cloudflare is aiding the transition to Post-Quantum (PQ) cryptography, safeguarding about half of its network traffic against future decryption threats posed by quantum computers. However, adopting PQ cryptographic methods, such as those needed for TLS certificates, presents challenges due to their significantly larger size and associated performance issues. Merkle Tree Certificates (MTCs) offer a promising solution by minimizing the number of signatures and public keys required during the TLS handshake, thus mitigating performance drawbacks. In collaboration with industry partners, Cloudflare plans to experimentally deploy MTCs, working with Chrome Security to test their effectiveness without compromising current security standards. This effort is part of a broader initiative to ensure the internet remains secure and private, even as quantum computing capabilities advance.