No, they aren't.
You can't remotely disarm nuclear weapons or protect an entire industry by switching algorithms.
They are a problem, and we should prepare for them, but they aren't apocalyptic.
Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
11–20 of 34 posts
Re: Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
#12Unlike nuclear weapons, a quantum computer is only dangerous if people don't know you have one.
There are a number of ways of dealing with the security issues posed by quantum computers; most of them involve simply increasing the key length of your encryption keys.
However, if people don't think you have a quantum computer, or you're able to make it better faster than expected, they won't change their behavior and so you have a fixed target.
Re: Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
#13Quantum fintech is going to make blockchain fintech look like child’s play.
You can't make statements like that without elaborating on what quantum computing can possibly provide.
Re: Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
#14Question: I get that QC can break some cryptosystems, but can it break all known cryptosystems?
Nothing can break a one time pad, used for the super secure stuff.
Re: Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
#15It's not clear that quantum computers are even all that magical. At least we know they are no more powerful than a Turing machine.
Re: Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
#16Are ordinary ssh keys vulnerable?
Short and simple: yes.
Though the question is how relevant this is. Likely SSH will have moved to something more secure years before any quantum computer with sufficient computing power will become available.
Because that's the thing these scare-stories don't tell you: While the progress in quantum computing is moving very slowly, in recent years the progress in post quantum cryptography has been very fast.
Re: Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
#17Second sentence:
"Now that the technology is moving from research to practice"
No such thing is happening. We're still in the state of "we're waiting for someone to actually show that quantum computers can do anything at all faster than a classical computer". Yeah, it's probably gonna happen in the not so far future, yeah, there's progress. But saying anything is moving "to practice" is absurd at this point.
Re: Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
#18Quantum fintech is going to make blockchain fintech look like child’s play.
I'd have to say that the blockchain would just go quantum too. NBD
Re: Quantum Computers Are the Future Nukes of the IT World
#19Question: I get that QC can break some cryptosystems, but can it break all known cryptosystems?
They break all widely used public key encryption systems (RSA, DH, ECC-based). There are post-quantum systems, but none of them are in widespread use yet.
Symmetric encryption systems are weakened, but can easily be made quantum safe by increasing the key size.