{"id":63135,"date":"2026-03-11T09:57:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/quantum-computing-isnt-just-coming-for-bitcoin-it-threatens-messaging-apps-too\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:57:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:57:53","slug":"quantum-computing-isnt-just-coming-for-bitcoin-it-threatens-messaging-apps-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/quantum-computing-isnt-just-coming-for-bitcoin-it-threatens-messaging-apps-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantum Computing Isn&#8217;t Just Coming for Bitcoin\u2014It Threatens Messaging Apps Too"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<h4 color=\"#333\">In brief<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>IBM researchers are working with Signal and Threema to design messaging systems resistant to quantum attacks.<\/li>\n<li>Cryptographer Ethan Heilman says messaging could face a greater near-term quantum risk than Bitcoin.<\/li>\n<li>Advances in quantum computing are pushing developers to prepare for post-quantum cryptography.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Quantum computing has long been discussed as a <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/resources\/what-q-day-quantum-threat-bitcoin-explained\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">future threat<\/a> to Bitcoin. Now, researchers say the same technology could undermine encrypted messaging systems used by governments, journalists, and millions of users worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>In a new <a href=\"https:\/\/research.ibm.com\/blog\/signal-threema-quantum-safe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report <\/a>released on Monday, IBM described its work with communications developers from Signal and Threema to redesign messaging protocols for a future in which <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/resources\/from-the-quantum-realm-to-reality-a-beginner-guide-to-the-computer-of-the-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">quantum computers<\/a> may be able to break the encryption underlying secure communications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBreaking through this kind of encryption is practically impossible with even the most capable classical supercomputers, unless you have a spare billion years to kill. But a major computing revolution underway today may soon change that,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n<p>While much has been <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/357415\/quantum-computing-risk-bitcoin-coinshares\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">written<\/a> about the quantum threat to cryptocurrency, cryptography researcher Ethan Heilman said encrypted messaging platforms may face a more immediate quantum risk than Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe short\u2011term threat is much greater for something like Signal than for Bitcoin because of store\u2011and\u2011forward attacks,\u201d Heilman told <i>Decrypt<\/i>. \u201cConceivably, someone could record communications now and then attack them later when they have a quantum computer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A store-and-forward attack occurs when an adversary intercepts and saves encrypted data, or in this case, messages, today with the intention of decrypting it later, once more powerful tools like a quantum computer make breaking the encryption possible.<\/p>\n<p>Launched in 2012 and 2014, respectively, Threema and Signal offer end-to-end encrypted messaging, calls, and group chats, with encryption keys stored on users\u2019 devices rather than on company servers.<\/p>\n<p>Classical computers cannot break current encryption, but a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could solve the underlying cryptographic problems that protect it. Progress in the field has accelerated in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Recent experiments from <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/346742\/ibms-quantum-120-qubit-breakthrough-bitcoins-encryption-risk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IBM<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/345472\/quantum-threat-bitcoin-grows-google-latest-breakthrough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/341716\/caltech-builds-worlds-largest-neutral-atom-quantum-computer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Caltech<\/a> have improved stability, scaling, and error correction, narrowing the time for when a practical quantum machine will come online, intensifying debate about the threat to cryptocurrencies like <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/resources\/what-is-bitcoin-four-minute-instant-guide-explainer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bitcoin<\/a>, which use elliptic-curve cryptography to secure transactions.<\/p>\n<p>A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could theoretically use Shor\u2019s algorithm to derive private keys from exposed public keys.<\/p>\n<p>Heilman said the growing use of encrypted messaging in government underscores why long-term communication security has become a priority for researchers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of people in the White House use Signal,\u201d he said, referring to the 2025 incident known as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2025\/03\/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans\/682151\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Signalgate<\/a>,\u201d where it was revealed that senior U.S. national security officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, used disappearing Signal messages on personal devices to discuss sensitive government matters, after adding a journalist to a groupchat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHistorically, there have been intelligence cases where communications were recorded decades earlier and only broken later,\u201d Heilman said. \u201cSo for communication security, there\u2019s always the risk of the future decrypting the past, which we don\u2019t have in Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 color=\"#333\"><strong>Future proofing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Signal has begun preparing for a potential future in which those so-called \u201charvest now, decrypt later\u201d attacks become a reality.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, the messaging company introduced the PQXDH upgrade to protect new sessions against such attacks. In 2025, Signal strengthened those defenses with a Sparse Post\u2011Quantum Ratchet (SPQR) protocol upgrade that extends post\u2011quantum protection to ongoing messages, calls, and media.<\/p>\n<p>For its part, Threema said it is working with IBM\u2019s cryptography researchers to explore integrating the National Institute of Standards and Technology-standardized ML-KEM algorithm into its messaging system as part of a shift toward quantum-safe encryption.<\/p>\n<p>The research also focuses on protecting metadata, including information about who belongs to encrypted group chats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen trying to port the existing Signal protocol for protecting this metadata to quantum-safe, the team quickly realized that just replacing the current components with their quantum-safe versions would likely lead to an up to a hundredfold increase in Signal\u2019s bandwidth,\u201d the report reads. \u201cThis meant they would need to redesign the protocols from the ground up for speed and communication efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most researchers say machines capable of attacking Bitcoin remain far beyond current technology. Still, Heilman flagged that the pace of development will likely accelerate if quantum advances continue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs soon as the threat becomes more real, things move quicker,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h3>Daily Debrief Newsletter<\/h3>\n<p>Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In brief IBM researchers are working with Signal and Threema to design messaging systems resistant to quantum attacks. Cryptographer Ethan [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":63137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tien-dien-tu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}