Quantum Computer Could Render Encryption Useless

A quantum computer system which uses atoms and lasers could one day become so powerful that it renders encryption technology useless.

Typical encryption systems - used to secure computer communications and files - can take computers years to crack, but MIT researchers say they have found a way to clear the hurdle.

They have invented a quantum computer that uses laser pulses and atoms to operate.

While it currently only uses five atoms and can handle only simple tasks, the system is scaleable and could one day be used for more strenuous assignments.

The problem of adding atoms for scale is an engineering problem, rather than a physics issue - a big step forward.

MIT's Isaac Chuang said: "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.

"In future generations, we foresee it being straightforwardly scalable, once the apparatus can trap more atoms and more laser beams can control the pulses.

"We see no physical reason why that is not going to be in the cards."

The difficulty of breaking encryption using current processing power was shown in 2009, when hundreds of computers had to be run simultaneously to find the prime number factors of a 232-digit number.

A single powerful quantum computer could be able to do the same thing in minutes.

Computers use traditional bits which can represent binary values of either 0 or 1. But quantum computers have qubits which can have multiple binary values at the same time.

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