Submitted 3 weeks ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.zip
No, the sky isn’t falling, but Q Day is coming, and it won’t be as expensive as thought.
Doesn’t quantum proof encryption exist already? I thought I learned that in college more than a decade ago… The only reason its not technically usable is because hardware is not strong enough to run it yet without being slow.
I could be misremembering though its been a long time
It does and many security or privacy oriented services are already implemented post quantum encryption, but majority of the internet still relies on AES-256 or similar if not worse.
AES-256 is fine actually. The best known quantum attack reduces key strength from 256 bits to 254.4 bits. The problem is that in order to use AES (which is a symmetric encryption scheme) you need to exchange keys using an asymmetric system like RSA, which is known to be weak to quantum attacks.
There is quantum cryptography also. If any middle man listens into the communication, the information is scrabbled. Cool stuff
more hype and no practical results
It’s kind of ironic that quantum computers seem to exist and not exist at the same time.
Mangoholic@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Why the focus on breaking encryption. Can these computers not be used for better things
hoch@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In a perfect world, yes. But instead, we have countries like Russia (and probably now the US) which would love to use this technology for nefarious purposes.
Miaou@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
“Now the us”? Were you born in 2015 lol
supplier@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
They do have real uses, but this is probably the one that woulf cause the most immediate harm
someacnt@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I learmed that QC can be used for general search problems, so it could get used for more efficient web browsing, etc. But those are relatively more difficult tasks, I guess.