<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/australia" rel="" target="" title="Australia's"><span>Australia's</span></a><span> top banker says she's worried about the threat posed to the country's payments system – and the personal data of its millions of residents – by quantum computing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a speech in Sydney today, </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/reserve-bank-australia" rel="" target="" title="RBA"><span>RBA</span></a><span> Governor </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/michele-bullock" rel="" target="" title="Michele Bullock"><span>Michele Bullock</span></a><span> flagged that the emerging technology will, at some point in the future, render current security standards obsolete, requiring widespread updates.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The fight against fraud and scams will no doubt require further innovation, adaptation and cooperation by the payments industry – we can be certain that fraudsters won't stand still in their efforts to steal people's data and money," Bullock told the </span><em><span>Daily Telegraph's</span></em><span> Bradfield Oration this morning.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/trump-says-hes-ending-trade-talks-with-canada-over-tv-ads/5619d287-0cc8-44b2-b473-84299bf8326a"><strong><span>An ad just made Trump so mad he cancelled trade talks with an entire country</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"One important example is the need to protect card users against advances in quantum computing, which is expected to result in current encryption standards being broken sometime in the future.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This requires migrating card payments to the advanced encryption standard (AES), a quantum-safe solution."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A University of NSW study last year found that the security algorithms used in IT networks across the globe, which take millions of years to break through even using modern supercomputers, could be decrypted in a matter of days or even hours by quantum computing.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/michele-bullock-warning-quantum-computing/eecf891b-ac66-4d9a-9724-6352b76fc4c5" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"IT networks that use popular cryptographic security algorithms, like RSA, are currently quite secure against being hacked, even if supercomputers are used to try and decrypt the cryptographic algorithms," lead researcher Dr Fida Hasan said at the time.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/class-action-filed-over-rates-of-sexual-violence-in-adf/66c7ed34-a4b0-4b1d-8424-78e657147499"><strong><span>Class action filed over rates of sexual violence in the Australian Defence Force</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Using current conventional supercomputers, it would still take millions or even billions of years to hack those security cryptosystems, but with the power of quantum computers, the time taken to decrypt those algorithms would be significantly reduced, potentially to a day or even less.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"There are some predictions that suggest a quantum computer, with the ability to rapidly decrypt cryptographic security algorithms, could be developed within the next decade."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When asked whether the emerging technology was the biggest threat to Australia's payments system, Bullock admitted it is frightening.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's something I worry about," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If you believe what they say (about) quantum computing, what takes 200 years to decrypt now, to break, will take a matter of minutes. So it is a big threat.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/sports-mafia-cheating-scandal-how-high-takes-poker-games-were-rigged/64c7fd05-9953-4ed7-a7e8-16310b502c29"><strong><span>How crooks rigged high-stakes poker games with the mob and NBA pros</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"But I have to say ... advanced encryption standards have been developed to meet that challenge of quantum computing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"But it's scary. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"At the moment, we trust our financial institutions to keep our data safe and they do that through encryption.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"So it is a worry that we need to make sure we keep up with that quantum computing situation, because otherwise it's not safe."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Australians lost a combined $173.8 million to scams and financial fraud in the first half of the year, up 26 per cent from the same time last year, according to the ACCC.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Technology is helping scammers reach more people than ever before and we see scams becoming more sophisticated and harder for people to detect," ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said in August.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>:</span></em></strong><span> </span><em><strong><span>Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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