Europol’s Quantum Safe Financial Forum has called on Europe’s financial industry to start preparing for the potential risks posed by quantum computers, which could break commonly used encryption methods within the next 10 to 15 years. The group, which focuses on safeguarding sensitive financial data, issued a warning on Friday about the risks quantum computing poses to customer confidentiality, peer communications, authentication processes, and trust in digital signatures.
Although quantum computers capable of such threats may still be a decade or more away, the timeline could accelerate, the forum warned. Despite the emerging risks, the forum believes new regulations are unnecessary, as current European Union data protection laws are sufficient.
The Quantum Safe Financial Forum includes representatives from the U.S., European, and British central banks, along with major financial institutions such as Allianz, Santander, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Mastercard, Moody’s, and European banking associations.
Quantum computers operate by leveraging subatomic particles to perform calculations more efficiently than traditional binary computing systems. Given their potential to decrypt today’s secure communications, the forum recommended that financial institutions begin identifying which cryptographic standards are vulnerable to quantum computing and start drafting operational plans to mitigate future risks.
The forum also cautioned that criminals may already be storing sensitive encrypted data with the intention of decrypting it once quantum computing becomes more powerful.
The U.S. government has already set a 2035 deadline for federal agencies to become “quantum resistant,” underscoring the urgency for global financial institutions to follow suit.
