Quantum computers can’t crack encrypted networks – yet Krunja/Getty Images
Intelligence agencies may be intercepting encrypted messages and storing them in the hope that they can eventually develop a practical quantum computer to crack them, a security researcher who has worked with the UK government has warned.
Although dozens of research groups are currently trying to build a practical quantum computer, none has yet publicly succeeded. Such a machine could quickly find the prime factors that serve as the multiplicative building blocks of a number – for example, 3 and 7 are the prime factors of 21. …