Oddbean new post about login | logout Encryption keeps our stuff safe, like our chats and online accounts. It's tough to crack with regular computers. But quantum computers, with their special powers (superposition), could break it. So, we need new kinds of encryption that are super hard for even quantum computers to crack. It's like changing the locks on our digital doors.
I see. When would we be at a point when quantum could break SHA256?
No one really knows. We might be just one breakthrough away. We already have Shor's algorithm, which can break those encryptions, though it currently works only on small numbers. In quantum computing, it's not even a computing issue; it's a memory issue especially for RSA. Most importantly, we can't wait for it. Adversaries can still store the encrypted data and just wait for the technology to decrypt it. So, we have to act as soon as possible.