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To: petro45acp

If a terrorist got ahold of a true quantum computer, the world would end a couple of days later. All security would be out the window. A trillion dollars would get stolen overnight, world financial systems would collapse, followed by blood in the streets, you get the picture.

It's not possible to cut every computer in the world simultaneiously over to quantum cryptography. So a real quantum computer would be the deadliest weapon on earth. Far more dangerous than nukes.

Fortunately, this company is most likely full of crap.


27 posted on 02/09/2007 11:49:22 AM PST by drangundsturm
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To: drangundsturm
If a terrorist got ahold of a true quantum computer, the world would end a couple of days later. All security would be out the window. A trillion dollars would get stolen overnight, world financial systems would collapse, followed by blood in the streets, you get the picture

bummer dude.
31 posted on 02/09/2007 11:55:14 AM PST by HEY4QDEMS (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: drangundsturm

A quantum computer might be able to decrypt messages but what a lot of people seem worried about, which is silly, is password cracking. The computer could run through nearly infinite combinations of passwords in a second and find the right sequence of letters and numbers.

The good thing about password or access cracking is that there's no way for the quantum computer to know the right answer - it would have to send the password to whatever program it was trying to access, and you can only do that so fast. Shoot ten quadrillion possible passwords at the CIA's computer system and see what happens. It'll crash, and the men in black will start looking for you.

The solution to encryption cracking, I think, isn't better encryption but preventing the criminal with the quantum computer from getting an encrypted message in the first place. That's where the interesting technology challenges will be.


70 posted on 02/09/2007 12:52:54 PM PST by JenB
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