Central Bank of Costa Rica to bolster digital security against quantum threats

The Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) has approved a project to strengthen its digital infrastructure to defend against potential threats from quantum computing. According to the Technological Services Department (DST), current cryptographic algorithms used to protect digital certificates and financial communications could lose their effectiveness by the beginning of the next decade.

Harold Murillo, an official from the DST, noted that while current supercomputers would take millions of years to break existing mathematical locks, international organizations estimate that quantum computers could achieve this in days by 2030. The project aims to secure the issuance and use of digital certificates to prevent the hacking or duplication of digital signatures, which could lead to the exposure of confidential information and the unauthorized processing of financial transfers.