I used to think so too (that's what iPhones and the like do on "erase", btw) but doesn't that just push the problem into the future, when computers can more easily crack today's encryption?
>the future, when computers can more easily crack today's encryption
No. Don't confuse symmetric with asymmetric (current public key) encryption. They aren't subject to the same potential attacks. Even with a theoretical fully scalable general purpose quantum computer, the best quantum attack vs a symmetric cypher is brute forcing with Grover's Algorithm, which provides a quadratic rather then exponential speed up. Ie., a n-bit key could be attacked in around 2^(n/2). This is trivially countered by doubling key length, a 256-bit key would still take 2^128 which would still be effectively impossible, and a 512-bit key would take 2^256. There is no future with any foreseen technology that would be able to brute force that, so when it comes to AES and the like using at least 256-bit keys it can be reasonably assumed that destroying the key means the data is lost (anything legacy running off 128-bit is reasonable to watch out for though, 2^64 is potentially tractable).
Present asymmetric crypto systems can theoretically [1] be attacked with Shor's Algorithm, which may be what you're kind of thinking of if you've heard about "today's encryption getting cracked" in the general media or scifi. And that would in fact be a big deal, it covers how most data is moved around in communications and the Internet at present. But QC isn't magic, and it doesn't just break anything. FDE and the like that just use symmetric crypto are safe.
1: "Theoretically" because that's if (big if) an ideal quantum computer that could be scaled to a sufficient number of qubits is created.
> There is no future with any foreseen technology that would be able to brute force that, so when it comes to AES and the like using at least 256-bit keys it can be reasonably assumed that destroying the key means the data is lost (anything legacy running off 128-bit is reasonable to watch out for though, 2^64 is potentially tractable).
But we can’t know for sure that AES or any other encryption algorithm doesn’t have some as-of-yet-unknown fatal flaw that would make it breakable in some way not necessarily even having anything to do with quantum computers?
Ha ha yeah that is true. My point though was that it’s important to keep in mind if we decide to use throwing away the encryption key as or way of protecting the data.
The computations used to do symmetric and asymmetric encryptions are completely different. Asymmetric encryption is just about factoring out big numbers into primes, if we simplify things a bit. And modern computers aren't very good at it, but Quantum Computer happens to be, and can break it. Read a bit about Shor's Algorithm[0].
On the other hand, symmetric encryption can be seen as a super convoluted and costly shift cipher. And it seems that Quantum Computing does not help much with dumb and costly mathematics like this.
Not even this as it could have negative impact on the next at least 2 generations depending on politics in the future. Some people judge you based on who your ancestors were and what they did. There are countries today where you have to fear for your life if your father was gay, for example.
As we cannot foresee the future, neither politics nor any future decyphering capacities, I highly doubt deleting the key is a viable option.
No. Don't confuse symmetric with asymmetric (current public key) encryption. They aren't subject to the same potential attacks. Even with a theoretical fully scalable general purpose quantum computer, the best quantum attack vs a symmetric cypher is brute forcing with Grover's Algorithm, which provides a quadratic rather then exponential speed up. Ie., a n-bit key could be attacked in around 2^(n/2). This is trivially countered by doubling key length, a 256-bit key would still take 2^128 which would still be effectively impossible, and a 512-bit key would take 2^256. There is no future with any foreseen technology that would be able to brute force that, so when it comes to AES and the like using at least 256-bit keys it can be reasonably assumed that destroying the key means the data is lost (anything legacy running off 128-bit is reasonable to watch out for though, 2^64 is potentially tractable).
Present asymmetric crypto systems can theoretically [1] be attacked with Shor's Algorithm, which may be what you're kind of thinking of if you've heard about "today's encryption getting cracked" in the general media or scifi. And that would in fact be a big deal, it covers how most data is moved around in communications and the Internet at present. But QC isn't magic, and it doesn't just break anything. FDE and the like that just use symmetric crypto are safe.
1: "Theoretically" because that's if (big if) an ideal quantum computer that could be scaled to a sufficient number of qubits is created.