US Edition
Qubits Needed to Crack Encryption Fall 200-Fold in Under a Year
Researchers say neutral-atom designs and new error-correction methods cut the qubit estimate from millions to about 10,000.
- On Tuesday, Caltech and Oratomic researchers proposed that a quantum computer with 10,000 to 20,000 qubits could solve encryption algorithms, drastically reducing prior million-qubit estimates.
- Led by Manuel Endres, professor of physics at Caltech, the team utilized neutral-atom quantum systems with optical tweezers to move and entangle atoms, encoding logical qubits with as few as five physical qubits.
- The study suggests a system with 26,000 qubits could break ECC-256 encryption in 10 days, while parallelized architectures with 102,000 qubits would crack RSA-2048 encryption in 97 days.
- These findings accelerate quantum encryption threats to the end of the decade, whereas scientists previously estimated such powerful machines would require another 10 or 20 years to build.
- While results are theoretical, scientists emphasize that significant engineering challenges remain to build scalable, fault-tolerant systems, leaving the transition to functional quantum computers not yet guaranteed.
36 Articles
36 Articles
Quantum computers may crack RSA encryption with fewer qubits than expected
A team of researchers at AI Google Quantum AI, led by Craig Gidney, has outlined advances in quantum computer algorithms and error correction methods that could allow such computers to crack Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) encryption keys with far fewer resources than previously thought. The development, the team notes, suggests encryption experts need to begin work toward developing next-generation encryption techniques. The paper is published on th
Google flags rising quantum threat to crypto security, urges shift to post-quantum encryption
Google researchers have heightened concerns about the long-term security of cryptocurrencies, warning that advances in quantum computing could undermine the cryptographic foundations that protect digital assets such as Bitcoin, according to
Quantum computers need vastly fewer resources than thought to break vital encryption
Building a utility-scale quantum computer that can crack one of the most vital cryptosystems—elliptic curves—doesn’t require nearly the resources anticipated just a year or two ago, two independently written whitepapers have concluded. In one, researchers demonstrated the use of neutral atoms as reconfigurable qubits that have free access to each other. They went on to show this approach could allow a quantum computer to break 256-bit elliptic c…
Quantum computers need just 10,000 qubits — not the millions we assumed — to break the world's most secure encryption algorithms
Future quantum computers will need to be far less powerful than we thought to threaten the security of encrypted messages, banking information and other sensitive data.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 67% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
