Quantum Attack on Crypto May Sneak Up Unnoticed

Crypto's first quantum attack may not be a splashy theft of Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin, but rather a series of unrelated wallet breaches with no explanation for how they occurred. This is according to Christopher Smith, CEO and co-founder of Quantus Network.

A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive a private key from public keys exposed onchain, allowing an attacker to move funds without compromising a wallet, device or exchange's internal systems.

This makes the arrival of 'Q-day', when quantum computers become powerful enough to break standard public-key cryptography, difficult to detect. In a theft involving a highly secure organization, 'the only forensic evidence would be that there was no breach,' Smith said.