How Next-Gen Firewalls Are Adapting
Firewalls have long served as the frontline in our battle against cyber criminals and cyber threats, safeguarding our most sensitive data. However, technology continues to evolve, and the emergence of quantum computing poses a threat to traditional firewalls. Quantum computing might soon leave these firewalls obsolete, which is why quantum-safe firewalls are being developed to address this concern.
How They Work
To comprehend the impact of quantum computing on firewalls, you might first need to understand the fundamental principles underlying both of these technologies. Traditional firewalls - the kind we use today - operate based on what’s known as deterministic algorithms. In other words, these firewalls are inspecting incoming and outgoing network traffic and enforcing predefined security policies. However, quantum computing's processing power and advanced capabilities could disrupt this - in other words, they’d render existing encryption protocols susceptible to quantum attacks.
Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits for short, to perform complex calculations at speeds far faster than classical computers. A calculation that might take months or even years for a traditional computer to solve could take moments with a quantum computer. And because of this, the cryptographic algorithms commonly used to secure network communications could potentially become vulnerable to quantum attacks. These kinds of attacks exploit the properties of quantum mechanics to factor large numbers or solve problems, which in turn leads to them compromising the integrity of encrypted data.
How Quantum Tech Helps
In light of these threats, the development of quantum-safe firewall solutions has emerged, and it’s becoming more important with every passing day. Quantum-safe firewalls aim to reduce the risks of quantum attacks by employing encryption algorithms that have been designed to be resilient to quantum computing capabilities. Lattice-based cryptography, for instance, offers users robust security against quantum attacks - the mathematical structure of lattices can be used to encrypt data securely. Companies around the world are working on quantum firewalls. One of the global leaders in quantum encryption, Arqit, announced last year that it had partnered with BT and Fortinet to develop a quantum-safe VPN integrated with Fortinet and Arqit’s next-generation quantum-safe firewall. Quantum-safe firewalls - like Arqit and Fortinet’s - can be used to fortify network defences against emerging threats. These techniques rely on mathematical problems that, so far, are still computationally impossible for both classical and quantum computers to solve, ensuring we can enjoy long-term security in the quantum era.
What Are The Challenges?
More and more businesses are turning to advanced firewalls. Last year, a survey by Gartner showed that 60% of businesses should have multiple firewall deployments by 2026. However, these are just cloud firewalls and hybrid -mesh firewalls rather than quantum-enhanced firewalls, and could still be threatened by quantum computing in the next few years.
Despite the promise of quantum-safe firewalls, their development and widespread deployment still present some significant technical and logistical challenges. Transitioning from traditional to quantum-safe encryption, for example, will require meticulous planning and coordination in order to ensure compatibility with existing network infrastructure and applications. And quantum-safe algorithms may need increased computational overhead, which would cost more money and require efforts to minimise performance impacts on both network throughput and latency.
What Can We Do?
The adoption of quantum-safe firewalls will require collaboration between big businesses and standardisation bodies to establish some standardised cryptographic protocols. Initiatives such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardisation project aim to evaluate and standardise quantum-safe algorithms, helping to foster a more unified approach to quantum-resistant cybersecurity.
As more and more organisations begin to navigate the transition to quantum-safe firewalls, it's crucial that we adopt a proactive cybersecurity posture. Threat intelligence and vulnerability management will play a pivotal role in identifying and mitigating potential security risks, helping organisations to stay ahead of emerging threats in the quantum computing landscape. Investing in employee training and awareness programs will also be essential to empower individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to recognise - and respond effectively to - cyber threats. This way, businesses can reduce the impact of quantum attacks on their network security, and reduce the chance of them happening in the first place.
The advent of quantum computing unfortunately poses a number of challenges to traditional firewall technologies, meaning we need to be developing quantum-safe solutions if we want to protect our network communications in the quantum era. Quantum-safe firewalls, meanwhile, can reduce the risks posed by quantum attacks, and help organisations to bolster their cyber defences.