Governments are already recording your encrypted data right now to decrypt it in the future with quantum computers. This is called SNDL (Store Now, Decrypt Later).
Agencies like the NSA and Chinese intelligence tap submarine cables and filter traffic by priority, from military secrets to commercial VPN handshakes. The plan is to store today, open it when the quantum PC is ready.
The problem is that asymmetric encryption (RSA, that little padlock in your browser) falls instantly to Shor's Algorithm.
When they open the handshake they recorded today, they find your key, your payload, your passwords, your source code, your real identity.
The good news is that AES-256 holds up. Quantum PCs can only run Grover's Algorithm against it, which cuts the strength in half, dropping it to 128 bits, which would still take millennia to brute-force.
so, encrypt locally with AES-256 before sending anything to the cloud (Rclone Crypt, for example).
If the key never travels over the internet through a legacy protocol (like emailing it to someone), there's nothing to record.
The hope is the fast adoption of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) before the first military quantum PC gets turned on.
Hamasaki
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