How Quantum Computing Will Change Cryptography

The massive release of the US National Security Agency (NSA)s classified documents by Edward Snowden continues to raise questions about security. One of these documents deals with the NSAs classified research program in the exotic field of quantum computing.

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This research investigates ways to process information using the laws of quantum mechanics, rather than the familiar physics underlying present-day computer processors.

Why should the NSA care? Because the single most famous application of quantum computing is in code-breaking.

During World War II, a team led by Alan Turing used a primitive computer to break the Nazis Enigma code

The NSA document, which can be found online, deals with the excitingly named project Penetrating Hard Targets.

An unknown portion of the $US80-million budget is devoted to building a small quantum processor, capable of counting up to four. (No, not four-million. Just four!) This doesnt sound like much, but one has to start somewhere.

Another portion supports research into quantum cryptography, which offers new, higher-security secret codes based on quantum mechanics.

The news here is that the NSA had its own secret experimental program. It was already public knowledge that the NSA is interested in quantum computing.

The NSA has been financially supporting non-classified quantum computing research at universities since the 1990s, and many academic journal articles acknowledge NSA support.

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How Quantum Computing Will Change Cryptography