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Math is hard. Indeed, much of the modern infrastructure for secure communication depends heavily on the difficulty of elementary mathematics — of factoring, to be exact. It's easy to reduce a small number like 15 to its prime factors (3 x 5), but factoring numbers with a few hundred digits is still exceedingly difficult. For this reason, the RSA cryptosystem, an encryption scheme that derives its security from the difficulty of integer factorization, remains a popular tool for secure communication.
Research suggests, however, that a quantum computer would be able to factor a large number far more quickly than the best available methods today. 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. In light of this, cryptographers are scrambling to find a new quantum-proof security standard.
Yet perhaps RSA isn't in as much trouble as researchers have assumed. A few weeks ago, a paper surfaced on the Cryptology ePrint Archive that asked: "Is it actually true that quantum computers will kill RSA?" The authors note that even though a quantum computer running Shor's algorithm would be faster than a classical computer, the RSA algorithm is faster than both. And the larger the RSA "key" — the number that must be factored — the greater the speed difference.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:22PM (3 children)
"Some of the cryptographers who are discussing post-quantum crypto are definitely on the Hollywood technobabble side."
I doubt this.
You seemed to be confused about the nature of research. Looking into threats that are decades away is exactly the kind of thing that researchers are supposed to do. The other things that you are asking for are implementation-related. Cryptographic researchers may be investigating algorithms that enable those things, but you'll need software engineers and developers to make them reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 16 2017, @09:53PM (2 children)
It's why I sell flying-car insurance.
(Score: 2) by J053 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:05AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @02:04PM
I was going to sell you handsome cream, but it looks like you already bought out the store [youtube.com].