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Quantum Computing Not an Imminent Threat To Public Encryption

Posted by Soulskill on from the in-search-of-schrodinger's-catastrophe dept.

Bruce Schneier's latest blog entry points out an interesting analysis of how quantum computing will affect public encryption. The author takes a look at some of the mathematics involved with using a quantum computer to run a factoring algorithm, and makes some reasonable assumptions about the technological constraints faced by the developers of the technology. He concludes that while quantum computing could be a threat to modern encryption, it is not the dire emergency some researchers suggest.

2 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Schneier knows his stuff by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

    Uff, I meant Applied Cryptography . Practical Cryptography is a bit too basic an overview written with a co-author.

  2. Re:Well, lucky for us by russotto · · Score: 5, Informative

    As far as I know, it is not known whether quantum computers can solve NP-hard problems in polynomial time. To say that they fail at NP-problems may be premature.
    Seeing as it hasn't even been proven that P != NP for ordinary computers, it's very premature.