From Quantamagazine
Digital security depends on the difficulty of factoring large numbers. A new proof shows why one method for breaking digital encryption won't work.
Virtually all polynomials of a certain type are "prime," meaning they can't be factored.
The proof has implications for many areas of pure mathematics. It's also great news for a pillar of modern life: digital encryption.
The main technique we use to keep digital information secure is RSA encryption. It's a souped-up version of the encryption scheme a seventh grader might devise to pass messages to a friend: Assign a number to every letter and multiply by some secretly agreed-upon key. To decode a message, just divide by the secret key.
Quite a statement by the researchers. This allegedly makes RSA encryption "quantum proof", and if so means that classical encryption may still be with us long after quantum computing arrives. Given that quantum systems require expensive entanglement setups, it may also mean that a cheap encryption method may stay viable.
Paper: Irreducibility of random polynomials of large degree
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @10:45AM (1 child)
I'm not sure why someone suggests RSA is now quantum proof. Perhaps, if the paper is correct, quantum proof from one *form* of attack.
But there are endless means to attack a problem, and quantum hardware may present new methods not known as of yet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @05:51PM
Quantum computing appears to only be mentioned by the submitter. TFA does not say anything about it, and neither does the actual paper which does not even mention RSA at all.