Slashdot Mirror
1978 Cryptosystem Resists Quantum Attack
KentuckyFC writes "In 1978, the CalTech mathematician Robert McEliece developed a cryptosystem based on the (then) new idea of using asymmetric mathematical functions to create different keys for encrypting and decrypting information. The security of these systems relies on mathematical steps that are easy to make in one direction but hard to do in the other. Today, popular encryption systems such as the RSA algorithm use exactly this idea. But in 1994, the mathematician Peter Shor dreamt up a quantum algorithm that could factorise much faster than any classical counterpart and so can break these codes. As soon as the first decent-sized quantum computer is switched on, these codes will become breakable. Since then, cryptographers have been hunting for encryption systems that will be safe in the post quantum world. Now a group of mathematicians have shown that the McEliece encryption system is safe against attack by Shor's algorithm and all other known quantum algorithms. That's because it does not depend on factorisation but gets its security from another asymmetric conundrum known as the hidden subgroup problem which they show is immune to all known quantum attacks."
A sociological observation is that Shor was an undergrad at Caltech when McEliece was a professor there formulating the cryptosystem that would resist the quantum algorithm that Shor would develop years later. I wonder if knew each other.
Even then, they would probably spend a long time creating other circumstances in which to pick you up that would give plausible deniability as to how they caught on.
One can google one's own references as I'm sort of lazy today, but a good example: the British had thoroughly broken Enigma during WWII, and at one point in the war knew where -every- German U-boat was. This created a dilemma for them: should they act on this information, and if so, how to do it without tipping their hand? If they just went and rounded up every single one, it would be pretty obvious that the code had been broken.
What they did, according to the stories, is send out disinformation that a) they had ramped up production of a bunch of new long-range sea-spotting planes (they didn't, they only had the resources for a few); and b) these planes would fly near where they already -knew- the U-boat was, and 'spot it' (making sure it was obvious they'd been seen by the U-boat itself before flying back). The British were also careful not to find too many U-boats -- only the ones that they needed out of the way for critical operations. The Germans were convinced they just had really bad luck and were the victim of a very expensive and thorough patrol system by the British.
If the guys in dark suits can crack PGP, Blowfish, etc. easily, they won't obviously act on it until they first get dirt on you via other means. :p