Traditional encryption uses schemes based on complex mathematics such as factoring (breaking an integer down to its prime factors) or discrete logarithm. Classical computers would require billions of years to crack these codes. Quantum computers, however, won’t be stumped by such hard problems; their exponential leaps in processing power will render classical cyphers obsolete, potentially exposing troves of sensitive data across commercial entities, healthcare providers, government institutions and billions of individual users.
Experts are working to devise cryptographic schemes that can run on today’s computers, but that can also be used in ciphers to protect data against quantum attackers.
Quantum computers can perform certain functions that ordinary computers simply can’t; in part, this is because qubits (the way information is encoded on quantum computers) adopt the properties of quantum mechanics, using individual atoms, ions, photons, or electrons to take on a combination of various states at once. This gives quantum computers – once little more than a laboratory curiosity – access to a larger space of values than conventional computers, with their binary zeros and ones. Someday, quantum computers will be able to perform a vast number of calculations almost instantaneously, breaking the ciphers that protect personal data.
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Denne historien er fra January/February 2023-utgaven av Popular Mechanics South Africa.
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