Quantum computing threats to cryptography in Cybersecurity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Quantum Computing Threats to Cryptography

📖 Scenario: You work in a cybersecurity team that needs to understand how quantum computing could affect current encryption methods used to protect sensitive data.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple knowledge summary that lists common cryptographic algorithms, identifies which are vulnerable to quantum attacks, and highlights quantum-resistant alternatives.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called algorithms with exact cryptographic algorithms as keys and their type as values

Create a list called vulnerable_algorithms containing the names of algorithms vulnerable to quantum attacks

Use a dictionary comprehension to create a new dictionary called quantum_threats that maps vulnerable algorithms to their vulnerability status

Add a final list called quantum_resistant with exact names of quantum-resistant algorithms

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Understanding quantum threats helps cybersecurity teams prepare for future attacks that could break current encryption.

💼 Career

Cybersecurity professionals must know which cryptographic methods are safe and which need replacement as quantum computing advances.

1

DATA SETUP: Define cryptographic algorithms

Create a dictionary called algorithms with these exact entries: 'RSA': 'asymmetric', 'AES': 'symmetric', 'ECC': 'asymmetric', 'SHA-256': 'hash', 'Blowfish': 'symmetric'

Cybersecurity

# Create the dictionary algorithms with exact entries
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces to create a dictionary with the exact keys and values.

2

CONFIGURATION: List vulnerable algorithms

Create a list called vulnerable_algorithms containing these exact strings: 'RSA', 'ECC'

Cybersecurity

algorithms = {
    'RSA': 'asymmetric',
    'AES': 'symmetric',
    'ECC': 'asymmetric',
    'SHA-256': 'hash',
    'Blowfish': 'symmetric'
}
# Create the list vulnerable_algorithms with 'RSA' and 'ECC'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to create a list with the exact algorithm names.

3

CORE LOGIC: Map vulnerable algorithms to threat status

Use a dictionary comprehension to create a dictionary called quantum_threats that includes only algorithms from vulnerable_algorithms as keys and the string 'vulnerable' as their value

Cybersecurity

algorithms = {
    'RSA': 'asymmetric',
    'AES': 'symmetric',
    'ECC': 'asymmetric',
    'SHA-256': 'hash',
    'Blowfish': 'symmetric'
}
vulnerable_algorithms = ['RSA', 'ECC']
# Create quantum_threats dictionary using comprehension
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary comprehension with for alg in vulnerable_algorithms and set each value to 'vulnerable'.

4

COMPLETION: Add quantum-resistant algorithms list

Create a list called quantum_resistant with these exact strings: 'Lattice-based', 'Hash-based', 'Multivariate'

Cybersecurity

algorithms = {
    'RSA': 'asymmetric',
    'AES': 'symmetric',
    'ECC': 'asymmetric',
    'SHA-256': 'hash',
    'Blowfish': 'symmetric'
}
vulnerable_algorithms = ['RSA', 'ECC']
quantum_threats = {alg: 'vulnerable' for alg in vulnerable_algorithms}
# Create quantum_resistant list with exact algorithm names
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to create a list with the exact quantum-resistant algorithm names.