Ordinary Computers Will Be Safe From Quantum Computer Hacking

German research engineers have successfully managed to develop what they think will protect regular computers from the future danger of Quantum computer hacker attacks.

The scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) are in the middle of working toward the practical application of current technology to defend “data against threats of tomorrow with the devices available today.”

That is at least according to a report by Rubin, the eminent science magazine.

While the era of the quantum computer  itself is only in its infancy, and beset with difficulties such as the fact that quantum processors have to be cooled at a pretty frosty -273 degrees Celsius, as well as being ridiculously expensive; the implications of what quantum computing could one day achieve are worrying from a security point of view.

Google have claimed its D-Wave 2X quantum computer is 100 million times faster than a conventional desktop PC running a single core processor.” In the wrong hands, this could mean that hackers would be able to successfully use “brute force” attacks against commonly used encryption protocols and access confidential and private information.

Faced with this future possibility, the engineers at RUB have been developing and discovering new types of cryptographic techniques that will hopefully ensure “security even in the era of the quantum computer.”

While to ordinary layman IT writer (me) taking preventative steps against potential quantum computing hacking may seem like jumping the gun, the team behind the Post Quantum Cryptography project at RUB think not.

According to ScienceDaily.com “Cryptography is implemented in many devices with a long service life, for example in satellites. Those devices have to remain secure in many years’ to come. Likewise, micro devices handling long-term critical data, such as electronic health cards, require cryptographic systems that are secure in the long term.”

By incorporating existing encryption techniques and merging them with other complex and innovative solutions, RUB engineers think they may have the means to blunt the future danger of the type of quantum computer utilized to hack encrypted systems, and do it with today’s technology.

In any case, this at least answers SoL’s comment  about hacking with quantum computer’s from the original article I wrote about quantum computing:

“Hackers must be eagerly awaiting for this to arrive ASAP, exploiting the hell out of existing conventional computers and breaking cryptography will be much less time consuming with QC. Looks like Darth Vader is on it’s way.”

-Problem solved, SoL, problem solved.