Report: NSA looking to crack all encryption with quantum computer
The U.S. National Security Agency is attempting to build a new breed of supercomputer that theoretically could make short work of cracking most keys used for encrypted communications.
The project to build “a cryptographically useful quantum computer” is part of an $80 million research project called “Penetrating Hard Targets” that is taking place at a campus in College Park, Maryland, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper quoted documents it said were provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2083760/report-nsa-looking-to-crack-all-encryption-with-quantum-computer.html
The whole NSA thing is a civil liberties issue, a separate debate, but what concerns me about this is what happens when other governments and individuals / criminal groups start using quantum computing to break encryption?
The quantum computer in the article can break any encryption because a quantum computer uses *quantum mechanics* where you get that magic of things being in two places at once (fascinating stuff), so the result is that the computer can crack a code by resolving all possibilities simultaneously.
I think quantum computing will lead to AI, but that's another topic. It's just astoundingly powerful, it's as big as splitting the atom.
So anyhow, civil liberties concerns aside, what about all our banking information and your bank account and every time you do an electronic transaction online or anywhere? All of that uses encryption. But quantum computers can break that encryption. The NSA is one thing, but what about when China has this? Or rogue states? Criminal organizations? Obviously there could be massive theft and total financial chaos worldwide.
Now someone might say, well, just use a quantum computer to make a better code.
But far as I know it doesn't work that way, quantum computing looks at the whole picture and every possible combination all at once.
