One-time pads require true randomness in order to be unbreakable, which (last time I checked) wasn't a feasibility for traditional desktop computers. Now I'm sure there's a subset of Slashdotters who sport their own custom half-life sampling hardware... but regardless, there is no realistic implementation for this algorithm. Any randomly generated pad would have to be securely transferred to both parties. If you are already going through all of the trouble of distributing massive pads, it would make more sense to simply hand the person you are trying to communicate with the plain-text of the message.
However, I don't fear the proposed "end of internet privacy," since current quantum computers take up an entire room, and possess only a handful of qubits. I imagine that by the time the quantum computer has been scaled to the point where we see modern-day cryptography such as RSA break, quantum encryption will already be implemented on a broad scale.
Slashdot Mirror
One time pads already are unbreakable.
One-time pads require true randomness in order to be unbreakable, which (last time I checked) wasn't a feasibility for traditional desktop computers. Now I'm sure there's a subset of Slashdotters who sport their own custom half-life sampling hardware... but regardless, there is no realistic implementation for this algorithm. Any randomly generated pad would have to be securely transferred to both parties. If you are already going through all of the trouble of distributing massive pads, it would make more sense to simply hand the person you are trying to communicate with the plain-text of the message.
However, I don't fear the proposed "end of internet privacy," since current quantum computers take up an entire room, and possess only a handful of qubits. I imagine that by the time the quantum computer has been scaled to the point where we see modern-day cryptography such as RSA break, quantum encryption will already be implemented on a broad scale.