Why Quantum Computers Might Not Break Cryptography
A new paper claims that a common digital security system could be tweaked to withstand attacks even from a powerful quantum computer.
A new paper claims that a common digital security system could be tweaked to withstand attacks even from a powerful quantum computer.
.. If researchers could build a quantum computer that could outperform classical supercomputers, the thinking goes, cryptographers could use a particular algorithm called Shor’s algorithm to render the RSA cryptosystem unsalvageable. The deadline to avert this may arrive sooner than we think: Google recently claimed that its quantum computers will be able to perform a calculation that’s beyond the reach of any classical computer by the end of the year.
.. The authors of the paper estimate that attacking a terabyte-size key using Shor’s algorithm would require around 2100 operations on a quantum computer, an enormous number comparable to the total number of bacterial cells on Earth.
.. The authors report that generating a terabyte-size RSA key and carrying out the encryption-decryption process takes about five days.