Is your Business Secure Against Quantum Attacks? Comparing PC, Cloud and Quantum Computing in 8-Character Hash Cracking

What are Hashing Algorithms?

In today’s cybersecurity landscape, hash cracking poses a significant threat, potentially exposing sensitive information, including passwords, messages and documents. Storing passwords in plain text is insecure, as unauthorized users can easily access them, leading to significant data breaches.

Hashing is a cryptographic technique that converts data into a fixed-size string, ensuring security by verifying data integrity. It acts as a form of authentication, allowing systems to compare hashed values without exposing the original data.

Below is an example of a hashed password using the MD5 algorithm, incorporating the keyword PteraTch. This demonstrates how hashing transforms sensitive data into a secure format, ensuring that even if the hash is exposed, the original information remains protected.

Hashing algorithms have long been fundamental to data security. Designed to be computationally infeasible to reverse-engineer, they play a critical role in password storage, digital signatures and data integrity checks. However, advances in computing — particularly quantum computing — pose new threats to traditional hashing techniques, making future-proofing methods more important than ever.

Where Are Hashing Algorithms Applied to Protect your Data?

Hashing algorithms are widely used to protect businesses and sensitive data in various areas, including:

How Do Different Computing Setups Compare in Hash Cracking? Key Differences Explained

As computing power advances, the security of hashing algorithms faces increasing challenges. This article explores how long it takes to crack an 8-character hash using three different setups:

1. A Personal Computer (PC) — A standard consumer-grade computer
2. A Google Cloud Server Cluster — A powerful cloud-based computing system
3. Google’s cutting-edge Willow Quantum Chip — A quantum computing breakthrough

By comparing these setups, we aim to highlight the differences in computational power, cost, and efficiency. Additionally, we’ll provide some recommendations and best practices to help businesses strengthen their cybersecurity against these evolving threats.

Cracking an 8-Character Hash: A Computational Challenge

The Problem: To assess the impact of computing power on hash security, we simulate an experiment to brute-force an 8-character alphanumeric password.

Key Parameters:

1. Hash Type: Assume the hash type is MD5 for simplicity
2. Character Set: Alphanumeric (62 characters)
3. Keyspace: Here in our case we are testing a keyword with 8 characters and the number of total combinations is 62^8.

Goal: Crack the hash by brute force — generating every possible combination, hashing it, and comparing it to the target hash.

Comparison of Setups

1. Personal Computer (PC)

Hash Rate (Intel i7, 16GB RAM)

A typical Intel i7 system with 16GB of RAM can handle in the ballpark of 300,000–500,000 hashes per second (depending on exact CPU model, clock speed, and other factors).

Cost Estimate

• Power Draw: ~150W
• Electricity Cost: If your rate is $0.12/kWh, running at 150W for one hour costs about $0.018 (1.8¢). Over 24 hours, that’s roughly $0.43 per day.

Notes

• This setup is still on the slower side for serious cryptographic or mining tasks but is relatively inexpensive to operate. It’s generally suitable only for lower-priority or exploratory projects.

2. Google Cloud Server

• Hash Rate: With 1,000 servers operating at approximately 1,000,000 hashes per second, the total processing power reaches around ~1 billion hashes per second
• Cost Estimate: Google Cloud Engine charges $0.04048/hour per core, assuming each server uses 4 cores
• Notes: This method provides a balance between speed and cost for businesses that require efficiency.

3. Willow Quantum Chip

• Quantum Advantage: Quantum algorithms like Grover’s algorithm effectively reduce the keyspace, significantly decreasing the computational effort required for decryption.
• Hypothetical Hash Rate: ~2^12 hashes per second
• Cost Estimate: Quantum computing costs are estimated at $10,000/hour. For 109.76 seconds
• Notes: The Willow chip is exponentially faster and cost-effective for its performance but limited by accessibility.

Summary of Results and Time to Crack for 3 Setups

This summary compares the time to crack an 8-character alphanumeric password using three setups:

• PC: Takes approximately 6.92 years to crack
• Google Cloud: Cracks in about 7.58 hours
• Willow Quantum: Cracks in just 109.17 seconds.

How to Protect Against Quantum Attacks

Here are some recommendations on how you can protect your business against quantum attacks. Quantum computing brings a significant threat to current cryptographic methods. Here are strategies to safeguard your systems:

1. Adopt Quantum-Resistant Algorithms
   Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms are designed to withstand quantum attacks. Algorithms like Lattice-based encryption (e.g., NTRU, Kyber) show promising resilience.
2. Implement Longer Key Lengths
   Increasing key length in symmetric cryptography expands the computational workload for both classical and quantum attackers. For example: Upgrade from 128-bit to 256-bit encryption for enhanced security.
3. Use Hash-Based Cryptography
   Hash-based signature schemes (e.g. XMSS) offer quantum resistance and are already being standardized by organizations like NIST.
4. Transition to Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)
   QKD leverages quantum mechanics to establish secure key exchange, making interception virtually impossible.
5. Stay Updated on Standards
   Monitor developments from organizations like NIST, which are actively working on post-quantum cryptographic standards.