Key points:

Amit focuses on the need for 'crypto-agility' in the era of quantum computing, working actively on post-quantum cryptography standards
DigiCert is the driving force behind the world's first international Quantum Readiness Day, meant to prompt organisations towards a proactive stance
Digital trust will experience a 'renaissance' underpinned by quantum computing and generative AI, propelling DigiCert's future growth and leadership in the industry

Amit Sinha, CEO of DigiCert, highlights the implications of the recent $466 million quantum computing investment by the Australian Federal Budget. Viewing this development with a sense of proactive preparedness, Amit underlines the crucial role that digital trust plays, being the underlying infrastructure for secure online interactions. He emphasises that the introduction of quantum computing capabilities could potentially disrupt the basis of such trust, hence DigiCert's collaboration on post-quantum cryptography standards with the US National Institutes of Standards and Technology.

Amit stresses on the idea of 'crypto-agility' where organisations are being agile in preparing their extant cryptographic assets towards future 'post-quantum' standards. As part of this readiness, DigiCert has marked September 26th, 2024, the world's first international Quantum Readiness Day. Alongside this, the company is actively developing post-quantum labs and providing expert assistance to organisations in their transition towards quantum readiness.

Finally, Amit draws attention to an inherent sense of urgency for a massive upgrade of the internet's cryptographic infrastructure. He advises Australia to learn from other countries and organisations and to adopt a proactive stance on quantum readiness. He also forecasts a bright future for DigiCert, with its growth trajectory pointing towards $1 billion in annual recurring revenue in an expanding digital trust industry. Predicting a renaissance regarding digital trust due to quantum computing and generative AI, Amit remains bullish about DigiCert's role as a global leader in digital trust.

Below is an unedited transcript of the interview:

The federal budget included a $466 million investment into the construction and operation of quantum computing capabilities. To discuss what this means for digital trust, evolution, AI authenticity, and proactive measures for quantum computing readiness. The CEO of digital. Amit Sinha, joins me now. Amit, talk us through your reaction to the injection from the budget. Um, was it enough? What do you think it's going to achieve?

0:27

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be in, uh, in Melbourne. Uh, desert has over 6000 customers here, and, uh, it was a hot topic yesterday on what, uh, quantum computers could do to the future of digital trust. I just wanted to provide some background before we get into, uh, the, the impact, uh, you know, digital trust to sort of foundational infrastructure that, that makes sure that all these interactions that we have online, uh, are secure and trustworthy. I mean, how do you know, uh, that you're connecting to your bank's website and not a fake one? Or how do you know the the update you got on your iPhone really came from Apple, or the document that you signed wasn't tampered or changed after the after you sign? Uh, so digital trust is foundational infrastructure that, uh, that under the hood uses cryptography to make it all happen. And Dessert's, uh, been, uh, the leading provider of digital trust for over 20 years,

1:27

uh, in the industry now, um, all of these standards are based on math problems that, uh, current, uh, computers cannot crack. Uh, however, with, uh, the arms race going on in the quantum world, uh, there is, uh, there's fear that we would have stable quantum computers that can break current cryptography. So that could be an extinction level event. Uh, for all the digital trust that you just take for granted on the internet. Um, so a lot of discussions, uh, with our customers, uh, desserts. Uh, been working with, uh, uh, the US National Institutes of Standards and Technology to develop what are called post-quantum cryptography based standards that are based on a new class of problems, uh, math problems that even quantum computers, you know, cannot crack. Um, the problem, of course, is, uh, almost like a Y2K times ten problem without, uh,

2:27

a clear date of when such computers will be available and break cryptography as we know it. However, uh, what, uh, progressive organizations are doing is, uh, preparing for, uh, for crypto agility. Uh, essentially, you know, a big organization might have 100,000 cryptographic assets, you know, uh, from certificates on their servers to user devices to laptops to software that they might be signing to documents and preparing for that, you know, starting with an inventory to say, here are all my cryptographic assets that use pre quantum standards. And then having the ability to, to automate uh, and and swap to uh, post-quantum standards when they're available this summer is really what a lot of organizations are uh, are focusing on. DG certs announced September 26th, 2024 as the world's first international Quantum Readiness Day. And,

3:27

uh, you know, we, uh, we have our post-quantum labs, we have our, uh, quantum experts that are working with, uh, organizations to show them, uh, uh, a path to success. All right. Well, what do you think are the, um. Well, Australia, I should say, can learn from other governments and I guess also organizations to adopt more of a proactive stance here on quantum computing readiness.

3:54

That's a great question. Um, you know, if you look at the history of, uh, digital trust, uh, the last time, you know, we had to move from, say, a Sha one to Sha 256, these are geeky names for, uh, for, uh, for cryptographic signing algorithms. Some of the banks took ten years. So, um, you know, the, the sense of urgency because this is such a massive upgrade of the cryptographic infrastructure on the internet, uh, is is what I would, I would, uh, advocate for and, um, um, you know, to that extent, I'd say Australia, uh, I was pretty happy to meet many of our customers who are getting more serious about it. Um, and whether a cryptographically relevant quantum computer is five years away, uh, or ten years or maybe, you know, even two years, uh, the time to start acting is now. As a matter of fact, if you look at, uh, um, you know, some recent blogs by

4:53

Cloudflare, uh, they're seeing 25% of the traffic coming to their CDNs, uh, using post-quantum, uh, key encapsulation, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc. have already upgraded their, uh, key exchange to, uh, post-quantum standards because people are afraid about harvest now and decrypt later style attacks where nation state threat actors might be capturing traffic on the internet with the intent to decipher that once they have access to stable quantum computers. Um, so I guess the, uh, you know, preparing, uh, for crypto agility, making sure that you have an inventory of all cryptographic assets in your organization, uh, identifying what a crown jewels, you know, experimenting with, uh, uh, with, say, digital labs where you can, you know, play around with, uh, post-quantum signing algorithms or issue a digital certificate, uh, from a post-quantum certificate authority, uh,

5:53

are all things that organization should be focused on now. Um, and Amit as well. I just wanted to ask you, in terms of what you're expecting with digital Cert and of course, its growth trajectory, you're on track to reach $1 billion in annual recurring revenue. What's the future for Digi Search?

6:11

That's a great question. Um, you know, the the the digital trust market overall is, uh, you know, more than $10 billion. And, um, you know, as I mentioned, Digicel, it's been one of the most trusted certificate authorities on the internet. Uh, you know, we issue validated, tamper proof digital identities to organizations, um, whether it's for their websites for for their servers, users, devices, content. And we're also helping organizations manage the entire lifecycle associated with those cryptographic assets. Um, so the future is, uh, is very bright, particularly with, uh, quantum computing and generative AI. Uh, you know, the whole digital trust industry is going through a renaissance. So, you know, whether you're an investor or, uh, or innovator, uh, there's a there's a lot of growth potential, uh, in, uh, in digital trust. I'm very bullish about the future of, uh, desert. Uh, as a

7:11

global leader in digital trust, uh, for the real world that we live in these days.

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