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Quantum computers do not allow you to break all public key cryptography, they only allow you to break the common forms in use today. For some example algorithm

by gibybo 13y ago

Quantum computers do not allow you to break all public key cryptography, they only allow you to break the common forms in use today. For some example algorithms that are not vulnerable to quantum computers, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography Also, it would be quite remarkable if the NSA had quantum computers capable of breaking 2048 RSA or PGP keys. Possible, but extremely unlikely.

IBCNU 13y ago
Ah, thank you for sharing this. I agree it's unlikely but given some of the * cough * political events as of late it seems more and more likely. Taking off my aluminum foil hat now...
__alexs 13y ago
> Possible, but extremely unlikely. It doesn't seem improbable that the NSA are already recording encrypted communications because they are cheap to store and and have a reasonable chance of being broken in the future. They don't even need to break the algorithm for that data to become useful. In particular SSL encrypted web traffic of sites they suspect they might physically raid (or have cooperation with) in future seem like an excellent target. Although hopefully the increasing awareness and deployment of perfect forward secrecy should help with that attack.
- kimlelly 13y ago
  Exactly, the only real solution I see is to break up the government into many small governments, with small budgets, and controlled by the people. Not the other way round.
bradleyjg 13y ago
It's very unlikely. Just look at who they are hiring, still mostly mathematicians. Quantum computing is mostly physics, chemistry, and a lot of painstaking engineering. Unless they are secretly borrowing people hired on at e.g. the DoE, I just don't see it.
- abrichr 13y ago
  Consider that In-Q-Tel, the VC firm whose sole purpose is keeping US intelligence agencies ahead of the game, [1] is one of the primary investors [2] into D-Wave, the first company to create a commercially viable quantum computer. [3] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel [2] http://www.dwavesys.com/en/pressreleases.html#investment_2012 http://www.dwavesys.com/en/pressreleases.html#investment_201... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Systems
  - bradleyjg 13y ago
    Which wouldn't make a lot of sense if they already had a generation of quantum computers with enough qubits to brute force RSA-1024.
AJ007 13y ago
Google moving to 2048-bit is probably an indicator of what they see as vulnerable. Because of the current developments int the press this challenge is being viewed in the context of the NSA, but other foreign intelligence services also pose a threat to user data.
skue 13y ago
> Quantum computers do not allow you to break all public key cryptography, they only allow you to break the common forms in use today. True, but it's the public key cryptography in use today that I'm concerned with!

by gibybo 13y ago

IBCNU 13y ago

Ah, thank you for sharing this. I agree it's unlikely but given some of the * cough * political events as of late it seems more and more likely. Taking off my aluminum foil hat now...

__alexs 13y ago

> Possible, but extremely unlikely. It doesn't seem improbable that the NSA are already recording encrypted communications because they are cheap to store and and have a reasonable chance of being broken in the future. They don't even need to break the algorithm for that data to become useful. In particular SSL encrypted web traffic of sites they suspect they might physically raid (or have cooperation with) in future seem like an excellent target. Although hopefully the increasing awareness and deployment of perfect forward secrecy should help with that attack.

kimlelly 13y ago
Exactly, the only real solution I see is to break up the government into many small governments, with small budgets, and controlled by the people. Not the other way round.

bradleyjg 13y ago

It's very unlikely. Just look at who they are hiring, still mostly mathematicians. Quantum computing is mostly physics, chemistry, and a lot of painstaking engineering. Unless they are secretly borrowing people hired on at e.g. the DoE, I just don't see it.

abrichr 13y ago
Consider that In-Q-Tel, the VC firm whose sole purpose is keeping US intelligence agencies ahead of the game, [1] is one of the primary investors [2] into D-Wave, the first company to create a commercially viable quantum computer. [3] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel [2] http://www.dwavesys.com/en/pressreleases.html#investment_2012 http://www.dwavesys.com/en/pressreleases.html#investment_201... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Systems
- bradleyjg 13y ago
  Which wouldn't make a lot of sense if they already had a generation of quantum computers with enough qubits to brute force RSA-1024.

AJ007 13y ago

Google moving to 2048-bit is probably an indicator of what they see as vulnerable. Because of the current developments int the press this challenge is being viewed in the context of the NSA, but other foreign intelligence services also pose a threat to user data.

skue 13y ago

> Quantum computers do not allow you to break all public key cryptography, they only allow you to break the common forms in use today. True, but it's the public key cryptography in use today that I'm concerned with!