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Breaking RSA with a quantum computer?

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Re: Breaking RSA with a quantum computer?

#3
post #2

Huge, if true. However, many such claims have surfaced before and turned out to be dudds. For now, I am taking it with a spoon of salt but with an interest of any follow-ups and peer review.

Yeah, I think this is a sign that while, as the post notes, it's not clear that this is a 100% airtight paper/algorithm, there are major advancements happening in this space.

Re: Breaking RSA with a quantum computer?

#5
I'm surprised nobody has written a thriller yet where a new mathematical algorithm is found (maybe something to do with primes?), all encryption suddenly collapses, and with that we go into a psuedo-apocalypse where nobody is sure whether anything is authentic anymore. Banks can't share cash, ID systems are useless, we've still got electricity but no functioning internet, hardware root of trust is shattered...

Re: Breaking RSA with a quantum computer?

#6

I'm surprised nobody has written a thriller yet where a new mathematical algorithm is found (maybe something to do with primes?), all encryption suddenly collapses, and with that we go into a psuedo-apocalypse where nobody is sure whether anything is authentic anymore. Banks can't share cash, ID systems are useless, we've still got electricity but no functioning internet, hardware root of trust is shattered...

In the worst possible case we just switch to the one time pad encryption, which makes things inconvenient but literally can't be cracked by any computer or algorithm(tldr: the length of the key is as long as the length of the message, so a message can decode into anything and you can't tell whether the text you decoded is the right one or not). So a scenario where literally no encryption is available seems far fetched.

Re: Breaking RSA with a quantum computer?

#7

I'm surprised nobody has written a thriller yet where a new mathematical algorithm is found (maybe something to do with primes?), all encryption suddenly collapses, and with that we go into a psuedo-apocalypse where nobody is sure whether anything is authentic anymore. Banks can't share cash, ID systems are useless, we've still got electricity but no functioning internet, hardware root of trust is shattered...

Agreed.

But how would the movie end?

Re: Breaking RSA with a quantum computer?

#8
Even if this particular scheme doesn't work at scale, the writing is on the wall for conventional crypto. If you are encrypting data that will be at rest for more many years it's time to start think about migrating to post-quantum crypto so you don't end up one day discovering you're entire corpus is vulnerable.

Re: Breaking RSA with a quantum computer?

#9
A note to cast further suspicion on the immediate risk severity:

The researchers indicate use of a computer built with superconducting qubits in the abstract, to that, superconducting qubits present barriers such as

- limited coherence time due to common atmospheric muon events, and resulting phonons

- limited topological connectivity, further increasing needed coherence time.

Re: Breaking RSA with a quantum computer?

#10

I'm surprised nobody has written a thriller yet where a new mathematical algorithm is found (maybe something to do with primes?), all encryption suddenly collapses, and with that we go into a psuedo-apocalypse where nobody is sure whether anything is authentic anymore. Banks can't share cash, ID systems are useless, we've still got electricity but no functioning internet, hardware root of trust is shattered...

This is now my new favorite apocalypse.
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