Digital Event Horizon
Google has announced its plan to secure HTTPS certificates against quantum computer attacks without breaking the Internet. The new system uses Merkle Tree Certificates and is being implemented in Chrome. While this move addresses a pressing issue, it also raises concerns about compatibility and performance.
The goal of Google's Quantum-Resistant Root Store is to ensure that the internet remains secure as quantum computers become more powerful. However, there are many factors at play here, including compatibility, performance, and scalability. The future of cryptography looks complex, but one thing is clear: change is on the horizon.
Google plans to secure HTTPS certificates against quantum computer attacks without breaking the Internet.The quantum-resistant cryptographic data needed is roughly 40 times bigger than classical material used today.Merkle Trees are being used to verify large amounts of information using a small fraction of traditional verification processes.Goggle has already implemented its quantum-resistant root store in Chrome and is testing Merkle Tree Certificates with Cloudflare.The Internet Engineering Task Force is coordinating with other key players to develop a long-term solution for post-quantum resilience.
Google has recently unveiled its plan to secure HTTPS certificates against quantum computer attacks without breaking the Internet. The objective is a tall order, as the quantum-resistant cryptographic data needed to transparently publish TLS certificates is roughly 40 times bigger than the classical cryptographic material used today.
Today's X.509 certificates are about 64 bytes in size, and comprise six elliptic curve signatures and two EC public keys. This material can be cracked through the quantum-enabled Shor’s algorithm. Certificates containing the equivalent quantum-resistant cryptographic material are roughly 2.5 kilobytes. All this data must be transmitted when a browser connects to a site.
“The bigger you make the certificate, the slower the handshake and the more people you leave behind,” said Bas Westerbaan, principal research engineer at Cloudflare, which is partnering with Google on the transition. “Our problem is we don’t want to leave people behind in this transition.”
To bypass the bottleneck, companies are turning to Merkle Trees, a data structure that uses cryptographic hashes and other math to verify the contents of large amounts of information using a small fraction of material used in more traditional verification processes in public key infrastructure.
Merkle Tree Certificates, “replace the heavy, serialized chain of signatures found in traditional PKI with compact Merkle Tree proofs,” members of Google’s Chrome Secure Web and Networking Team wrote Friday. “In this model, a Certification Authority (CA) signs a single ‘Tree Head’ representing potentially millions of certificates, and the ‘certificate’ sent to the browser is merely a lightweight proof of inclusion in that tree.”
Google has already implemented its quantum-resistant root store in Chrome, with Cloudflare enrolling roughly 1,000 TLS certificates to test how well the Merkle Tree Certificates work. The plan is for CAs to eventually fill that role.
The Internet Engineering Task Force standards body has recently formed a working group called the PKI, Logs, And Tree Signatures, which is coordinating with other key players to develop a long-term solution.
“We view the adoption of MTCs and a quantum-resistant root store as a critical opportunity to ensure the robustness of the foundation of today’s ecosystem,” Google’s Friday blog post said. “By designing for the specific demands of a modern, agile internet, we can accelerate the adoption of post-quantum resilience for all web users.”
Related Information:
https://www.digitaleventhorizon.com/articles/Googles-Quantum-Resistant-Root-Store-Securing-HTTPS-Certificates-Against-Quantum-Computer-Attacks-deh.shtml
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/02/google-is-using-clever-math-to-quantum-proof-https-certificates/
https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/05/24/google-researcher-lowers-quantum-bar-to-crack-rsa-encryption/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/22/google-hails-breakthrough-as-quantum-computer-surpasses-ability-of-supercomputers
Published: Fri Feb 27 21:59:12 2026 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
