The race to save the Internet from quantum hackers(nature.com)
nature.com
The race to save the Internet from quantum hackers
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00339-5
2 comments
This machine almost certainly exists under DARPA/NSA. IBM is getting close commercially to something with enough QBITS to break a AES
Such a compQter would have to be a real, physical device. It cannot disobey the laws of thermodynamics. Despite solving in a non-Turing fashion it still needs energy commensurate with the computation performed. Presumably any data to be processed must be brought to it and the results dispatched. These real physical bottlenecks would limit its utility. Sure it could be used on targeted communications, and perhaps a well funded IC would set up a pipeline of the most urgent unsolved cases having outstanding relevant files to crack. But for all practical purposes little would change. Between the advent of a POC and commodity availability several decades will pass. By the same token, a breakthrough in quantum cryptanalysis will create breakthroughs in quantum (resistant) cryptography, and replacement technologies will track each other - a balance seen in cryptology throughout the ages.
That said, such alarmist articles are useful to maintain public awareness of our dependence on cryptographic processes, and keep-up vigilance against more pedestrian threats - like mad politicians we have in the UK.