Quoting Matthew Green
- ID
- 8843
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 30 Jul 2026, 2:18 AM
- Fetched
- 30 Jul 2026, 3:12 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/29/matthew-green/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 31 Jul 2026, 4:28 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_ml_learners
What happened
Simon Willison shares a quote from Matthew Green noting that cryptography is undergoing a historic transition from EC-based and RSA public-key algorithms to new post-quantum algorithms, with standards like HAWK under consideration. Green suggests this is an ideal moment for AI-assisted cryptanalysis to either validate the hardness of our chosen problems or expose weaknesses, referencing Anthropic's recent cryptography work.
Why it matters
If you build or maintain systems relying on RSA or EC-based TLS, this is a reminder that post-quantum migration is not theoretical—it's actively being standardized. Developers should start auditing which cryptographic primitives their services depend on and track post-quantum readiness in libraries they use, since the transition window is now.
Discussion angle
Is AI-assisted cryptanalysis a real near-term threat to current crypto, or is this mostly hype? What's the practical state of post-quantum migration for typical web apps today?