Time to get serious about the dangers of quantum computing

In so-called “harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) attacks, experts have theorised that rogue nation-states and cybercriminals could hoover up masses of encrypted data with the express intention of waiting until the moment when it can be decoded with great ceremony by a quantum computer.

But is this a reality? Andersen Cheng, the person who coined the term ‘harvest now, decrypt later’, says the hedas of multiple Western intelligence agencies have warned that HNDL attacks are happening “right in front of our eyes”, so much that it’s evolved into an initialism.