Malware In Quantum Computing?

MattSparkes writes, "Today's quantum computers are not sophisticated enough to do anything malicious to your online bank account; the field is in its infancy. However, there are in theory more ways to attack quantum computers than classical ones. As quantum networking takes off, this is going to become a larger and more immediate problem." The Wikipedia article correctly identifies as an unsolved problem in physics the question of whether it is possible to construct a practical computer that performs calculations on qubits.

Comments

Obligatory: quantum virus...

[fahrbot-bot]

I'm a little uncertain, but I think that you can either know what's been infected, or how fast it's being infected, but not both...

Re:Quantum Malware vs Observation

[Who235]

No.

When your AV program detects it, it flies off and infects someone else's computer.

Re:Quantum Malware vs Observation

[Tackhead]

> Does that mean by not looking at it it will cease to exist?

No, that's Windows Quantum Advantage: If Redmond observes that your copy of Windows Quantum is not Genuine, a hammer will break a vial of cyanide inside your PC, and your cat will die.

Quantum malware is what your dog installs to introduce sufficient uncertainty in Redmond's WQA check to ensure your cat's demise. (After all, when your cat's momentum is known to be precisely zero, it's gotta be somewhere around your PC.)

Windows Uncertainty Principle

[Rufty]

If I *know* it's got malware, I can't be sure if it's dead or alive...

Re:Virus Destroys Universe

[Mattwolf7]

You missed the memo, Firefox is immune to Zero Day exploits, but those pesky -1 Day exploits are another story...

Re:Quantum Malware vs Observation

[syntaxglitch]

(After all, when your cat's momentum is known to be precisely zero, it's gotta be somewhere around your PC.)

And if it's anything like my cat, it almost always will indeed have a momentum of precisely zero.

Re:A layman's take on this article

[geoffspear]

The main problem is that it's really hard to catch the guys putting viruses on your computers when they're living in a parallel universe.

Re:Quantum Malware vs Observation

[spun]

And if it's anything like my cat, when you know its momentum is precisely zero, its location can be damn near anywhere including right under your foot where you were sure there was no cat a moment ago.