Quantum computing promises future information security, but simultaneously threatens all information currently protected by 2048-bit RSA encryption. It is time to evaluate the threat and examine possible solutions.
This requires exploring the current state of quantum computing, examining the threat to RSA, and considering developments in quantum-proof encryption capable of mitigating the future risk. We talked to Professor Frank Wailhelm-Mauch, a theoretical physicist working on quantum computing and head of the quantum solid state research group at Saarland University. He is a key figure in the European Union’s €1 billion, 10-year Quantum Flagship project. He is coordinating a task to build a 100-qubit computer (called OpenSuperQ) that can then be used in further research.
The quantum state
In October 2019, Google announced it had achieved ‘quantum supremacy’, meaning it had succeeded in its own project called ‘quantum supremacy’. It was a major achievement – a 54-qubit processor that solved a predefined problem in 200 seconds. Google computed that it would take the world’s current fastest classical supercomputer 10,000 years to produce the same output.
The world took note. Is quantum computing closer than we thought? Is current encryption more endangered than we had realized?
Quoting an article published in 2011 by Computerworld, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission wrote in March 2020, “Today, classical computers working together and testing 1 trillion keys per second to break that same encryption key would need as much as 10.79 quintillion years, or 785 million times the age of the known universe. However, a quantum computer could perform the same task in about six months.”
The purpose of this statement is to galvanize the government into increasing its quantum research so “that U.S. research remains ahead of that of other countries, particularl ..
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