Chinese scientists managed to hack it using a quantum computer

Quantum computing experts have known this moment was coming for years. One of them, Juan José García Ripoll, is a researcher at the Institute of Fundamental Physics of the Supreme Scientific Research Council (CSIC), who carries out his research activities as part of the group Quantum information and fundamentals of quantum theory– he warned us during a conversation with him in October 2019. And that time has already come.

A team of researchers from Shanghai University (China), led by Professor Wang Chao, used the D-Wave quantum computer to successfully break SPN encryption.Replacement-permutation network), which is a cryptographic algorithm used to encrypt information. This encryption is the cornerstone of, for example, the AES standard (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is often used. These scientists published the result of their research in an interesting paper entitled “Public Key Cryptographic Attack Algorithm Based on Quantum Processing Taking Advantage of D-Wave.”

Interestingly, Professor Wang Chao and his team used two strategies to attack cryptographic algorithms. The first of these, in a broad sense, is to combine the optimization problem and the search problem in a quantum computer. Quantum machines are very effective at solving these problems. And the second strategy is to combine the Schnorr algorithm, Babai rounding and the quantum optimization method. In any case, the most interesting thing is that Chinese scientists have concluded that AES-256 and other military-grade encryption algorithms are closer than ever to being broken.

The solution has been in development for several years.

While talking to Juan José García Ripol, I jumped at the opportunity to ask him what would happen when quantum computers were able to break the most advanced encryption technologies we currently use. As we just saw, this moment seems very close, so it is worth reconstructing the answer that this CSIC researcher gave me. What he explains to us clearly describes what the future we are heading towards will be like.

“In principle, quantum computers will make the encryption algorithms we use vulnerable. For this reason, there is an area of ​​research in mathematics and cryptography, cryptography is resistant to quantum computers. This is a very complex area of ​​work and (there are people who will discuss this) there are still no “serious” results that provide a single solution. The alternative is that there are a lot of codes. can be hacked using quantum computers is to use quantum systems for cryptography. It consists, for example, of using quantum systems to generate private keys in different parts of the planet by sending entangled photons to different points, as China did with its Mitsius satellite,” says Ripoll.

“Europe also started with an initiative called European Union Quantum Communications Initiativein which Spain is participating to create quantum cryptography networks for infrastructure, but in the future they could become commercial and bundled as an accessory to make communications more secure. Perhaps this is one of the technologies that has a higher degree of maturity; in fact, it was commercial for a long time. In any case, quantum cryptography can provide a practical solution to such questions,” concludes Juan José García Ripoll. It’s obvious we’re in the moment dead end in which quantum computers will become more relevant as their capabilities develop. And cryptography is just one of the scenarios that will revolutionize it.

Image | IBM

Additional information | Chinese Computer Magazine

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