← PBS Space Time · Season 2020

Solving Quantum Cryptography

S2020 · E31 · 28 Sep 2020 · 18 min

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Your extensive posting history on r/birdswitharms and your old fanfiction-heavy livejournal are both one tiny math problem away from becoming public knowledge. That math problem is prime number factoring, and the new era of quantum computers may lay bare your indiscretions, as well as collapse the entire digital economy. Unless we get us some post-quantum cryptography post-haste. So, how close are we?