MIT’s New 5-Atom Quantum Computer Could Make Today’s Encryption Obsolete

Cryptogon ^ | March 6, 2016

[2ndDivisionVet]

"all you have to do is go in the lab, apply more technology, and you should be able to make a bigger quantum computer"

So the only thing preventing a more general purpose quantum computer is money and enough engineers...

Hmm...

(POLL-AT-LINK)

Via: PC World:

Much of the encryption world today depends on the challenge of factoring large numbers, but scientists now say they've created the first five-atom quantum computer with the potential to crack the security of traditional encryption schemes.

In traditional computing, numbers are represented by either 0s or 1s, but quantum computing relies on atomic-scale units, or "qubits," that can be simultaneously 0 and 1--a state known as a superposition that's far more efficient. It typically takes about 12 qubits to factor the number 15, but researchers at MIT and the University of Innsbruck in Austria have found a way to pare that down to five qubits, each represented by a single atom, they said this week.

Using laser pulses to keep the quantum system stable by holding the atoms in an ion trap, the new system promises scalability as well, as more atoms and lasers can be added to build a bigger and faster quantum computer able to factor much larger numbers. That, in turn, presents new risks for factorization-based methods such as RSA, used for protecting credit cards, state secrets and other confidential data.

The development is in many ways an answer to a challenge posed back in 1994, when MIT professor Peter Shor came up with a quantum algorithm that calculates the prime factors of a large number with much better efficiency than a classical computer.

Fifteen is the smallest number that can meaningfully demonstrate Shor's algorithm. Without any prior knowledge of the answers, the new system returned the correct factors with a confidence better than 99 percent.

"We show that Shor's algorithm, the most complex quantum algorithm known to date, is realizable in a way where, yes, all you have to do is go in the lab, apply more technology, and you should be able to make a bigger quantum computer," said Isaac Chuang, professor of physics and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

"It might still cost an enormous amount of money to build--you won't be building a quantum computer and putting it on your desktop anytime soon--but now it's much more an engineering effort, and not a basic physics question," Chuang added.

[ctdonath2]

I never said never.

Just implied not right now.

They’ve got 5 to “crack” a 4-bit key, we’d need thousands (go research the relevant crypto discussions via Google) to crack 256-bit encryption in a sane amount of time.

As a kid, Dad kept a 32-bit core memory board in a drawer. It was pretty neat at the time.
Right now, I’m writing this on a computer that stores 4,096,000,000,000,000 bits in the same space & price.
I expect a similar increase in qbit availability & density in no longer than the same time frame, if not a whole lot sooner.
The biggest problem we’ll face with computing technology 40 years hence is figuring out what to _do_ with all that mind-boggling capacity. We’re just coming to grips with the possibility that we might actually crack large-key encryption in a matter of _minutes_; what else could be done with an order of magnitude of orders of magnitude more qbits? I remember looking at a Cray 2 (in person) and wondering what could happen if we threw all that power at a user interface; today, I’ve got that in my pocket and colloquially call it a “phone”.
Get yer shades. The future is gonna be bright.

[Kommodor]

Are there any problems an enormous amount of money can’t solve?

[aquila48]

“...but quantum computing relies on atomic-scale units, or “qubits,” that can be simultaneously 0 and 1—a state known as a superposition that’s far more efficient.”

What the hell does that mean?

Does anybody here have any clue as to what that article says?

The only thing that I could get out of it is that a quantum computer can factor the number 15 with a 99% confidence. And I’m supposed to be impressed?

I can do it in my head with 100% confidence.