Europol body: Banks should prepare for quantum computer risk now

AMSTERDAM, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Europe's financial sector should start preparing now for quantum computers to be able to break some forms of encryption widely used to protect sensitive data, a Europol-led body set up to address the issue said on Friday.

"For the financial industry, the advent of quantum computers poses a risk to customer confidentiality and peer communications, authentication processes, and trust in digital signatures," the group said in a call to action.

"Quantum computers capable of posing such threats are expected to be available within the next 10 to 15 years, though this timeline could accelerate."

However, the Quantum Safe Financial Forum, set up by the pan-European police agency, said it did not believe new regulation is needed to address the problem as the need to protect data is clear under current European Union law.

Members of the forum include representatives of the U.S., European and British central banks, as well as Allianz, Santander, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Mastercard, Moody's and European banking associations, among others.

Quantum computers use subatomic particles to perform calculations in a different, more efficient way than classical binary computing systems.

The Forum's key recommendation is for financial institutions to begin learning which cryptographic standards may be vulnerable to quantum computers, which standards are believed to be secure, and to draft a plan to change operations accordingly.

Additionally, it warned that banks and businesses should consider that criminals might already be storing sensitive data in hopes of decrypting it in the future.

It noted that the U.S. government has set a deadline of 2035 for federal agencies to be "quantum resistant".

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Mark Heinrich)