[Jiggly]

The BBC release an article discussing the concept of the quantum apocalypse and how governments are looking into quantum computing and it's impacts (or potential).

The article talks about how encrypted data, held by banks, retailers, or even your bitcoin wallet, could be vulnerable to quantum computing. Where a normal PC running using the binary system would take years to break the encryption, quantum computers could (in theory) do this in seconds. The article is somewhat UK centric, and it definitely begins to discuss quantum computing as though it's some magical key that can open any door. However, it does go on to say that several organisations are already working out ways to "quantum-proof" their data.

Here is the excerpt from the article.

Code:

Data thieves A number of countries, including the US, China, Russia and the UK, are working hard and investing huge sums of money to develop these super-fast quantum computers with a view to gaining strategic advantage in the cyber-sphere. Every day vast quantities of encrypted data - including yours and mine - are being harvested without our permission and stored in data banks, ready for the day when the data thieves' quantum computers are powerful enough to decrypt it. "Everything we do over the internet today," says Harri Owen, chief strategy officer at the company PostQuantum, "from buying things online, banking transactions, social media interactions, everything we do is encrypted. "But once a functioning quantum computer appears that will be able to break that encryption... it can almost instantly create the ability for whoever's developed it to clear bank accounts, to completely shut down government defence systems - Bitcoin wallets will be drained." It's a prognosis echoed by Ilyas Khan, chief executive of the Cambridge and Colorado-based company Quantinuum. "Quantum computers will render useless most existing methods of encryption," he says. "They are a threat to our way of life." Seriously? That does sound completely apocalyptic, so why haven't we heard more about this? The answer is that yes, OK, this would indeed be the case if no precautions were being taken. "If we weren't doing anything to combat it then bad things would happen," says a Whitehall official who asked not to be named. In practice, mitigation efforts are already in train and have been for some years. In the UK, all government data classified as "top secret" is already "post-quantum" - that is, using new forms of encryption which researchers hope will be quantum-proof. Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Intel and IBM are working on solutions, as well as more specialist companies like Quantinuum and Post-Quantum. Most importantly, there is currently something of a post-quantum cryptography "beauty parade" taking place at the US National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) just outside Washington DC. The aim is to establish a standardised defence strategy that will protect industry, government, academia and critical national infrastructure against the perils of the quantum apocalypse.

For those of you who are like me, and understand very little about this topic, there is a really nice Scientific American article that explains what quantum computing is, and how it's different from classic computers, in laymen's terms.

The idea of quantum computing sounds very exciting. Thought I don't fully understand what it will change or won't change once it is developed.

[SpotnikSignal]

yea you can already submit code to https://qiskit.org/, already was thinking if people can make a different kind of encryption decoder.
would be funny if you could do it through an online solution like that haha

[daphneman]

I agree with the last answer