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Schneier Calls Quantum Cryptography Impressive But Pointless

Posted by timothy on from the science-fair-project dept.

KindMind writes "Bruce Schneier writes in Wired that quantum cryptography, while an awesome technology, is actually pointless (that is, of no commercial value). His point is that the science of cryptography is not the weak point, but the other links in the chain (like people, etc.) are where it breaks down."

2 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Solving the wrong problem by Checkered+Daemon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Encryption is easy. Authentication is hard. Quantum cryptography is a solution of the wrong problem.

  2. Re:Hard to argue with the general point. by CroDragn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem is that in the next 10-20 years there will be a extrordinary advance in commercial computers. Quantum computers, which are fantastic at breaking present day encryption, have made some major advances in the lab recently, and it wouldn't surprise me to see them operating at the government/corporate level within 20 years or so. Once these are in place, normal security will be very weak and something such as quantum security schemes will be required for most applications. So yes, quantum security is useless now, but hopefully research into it will provide with a practial model about the same time quantum computers make it necessary.