The D-Wave quantum
computer at the University of Southern California,
has 128 quantum bits (qubits). The facility keeps the D-Wave hardware
at near absolute zero
temperatures, and contains powerful shielding to
block electromagnetic
interference. Yet it's a long way from NSA dreams.
Don't Believe the Hype Over NSA's Quantum
Computer (de Volkskrant, The Netherlands)
"There is no news, and no quantum computer. So why all the
fuss? ... It seems that there is something else at play: the science-fiction
factor. In the media, there is talk of 'metal boxes the size of a room' where
people work 'in secret' on 'delicate quantum experiments.' You can imagine it
already: an underground base à la James Bond, where men in white suits tinker
with an enigmatic, humming machine. ... Seriously, a lot more James Bond films
will premiere before the arms race with hackers produces winners or losers."
Quantum particles that can be more than one thing at once - and be in more than one place at once. Not to worry - so far, they appear to disintegrate at the slightest disturbance.
What does it really
mean that the U.S. National Security Agency is working on a "quantum
computer"? It sounds much more exciting than it is, argues Maarten Keulemans.
Will
there be no end to the nefarious tricks of the NSA? After hacking the mobile of
Angela Merkel and tapping the phones of half of the European diplomatic corps, we
find that the American spy nest is also at work on a futuristic "quantum
computer" under the megalomaniacal project name "Owning the Net.”
At least, that is what has been revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, this time via The
Washington Post.
Brrr, brace yourself! In a quantum computer,
calculations are not done one by one, but in parallel, thanks to the odd
feature of quantum mechanical parts to be able to be several things at once.
Cracking a so-called Internet traffic RSA
key, for example, can be done by a quantum computer in just seconds,
whereas a conventional computer would take billions of years. Add a quantum
computer, and in short, the digital world has no more secrets.
This is Not News
There
is really only one "but." Although the word "revelation"
suggests otherwise, it really isn’t news that the NSA is working on a quantum
computer. It's even mentioned on its Web site. In the magazine Defense News, an NSA cryptography expert
has
already discussed it. The technology blog Pando Dailywrote
about the project last summer, as did the leftist news magazine Mother Jones. The only new element is
the price tag of the project, $80 million (€58 million), and the comment that progress
has been slow at the University of Maryland, where the research is being
conducted.
But
even there, it doesn't surprise anyone. Quantum computing requires maintaining
the stability of "quantum particles" - exotic quantum "switches"
that exist in several places simultaneously. The downside of all this is that the
switches literally disintegrate at the slightest disruption - even if you just
look at them.
“Quantum
Cryptography is still far from application, no matter what you read about
it," said MIT computer scientist Scott Aaronson last summer. That's interesting,
because Aaronson knows the NSA program from the inside.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
OK
then, so there is no news, and no quantum computer. So why all the fuss?
It
seems that there is something else at play: the science-fiction factor. In the media,
there is talk of "metal boxes the size of a room" where people work "in
secret" on "delicate quantum experiments." You can imagine it
already: an underground base à la James Bond, where men in white suits tinker
with an enigmatic, humming machine.
Arnold Arnold
The
affair is reminiscent of a case from before the Internet age that has fallen
into oblivion. In January 1984, a Russian computer scientist named Arnold Arnold created some panic, when The
Guardian reported that he had
managed to crack RSA encryption. All secret
information in the West would soon be in the hands of the Russians, wrote the newspaper.
All thanks to this Bond villain with a crazy name.
The notorious Arnold Arnold: a Russian scientist once
at the center of another mass
panic over encryption.
Arnold
Arnold (who appeared in a photo entirely in 007-style:
long raincoat, false grin, in a sort of underground tunnel) used the new
technique and immediately proved Fermat's last theorem, a notorious, and at the
time, still unsolved mathematical puzzly. Panic!
That
is - until experts looked again and found that things weren't so bad after all.
Arnold’s evidence was completely wrong, as was his code-cracking program.
"I do not believe that the key will be cracked this century," a
relieved security expert told New Scientist at the time. And even
if Arnold Arnold had succeeded, he said, "The
only thing we have to do to make the key exponentially stronger is to make it exponentially
longer."
This
is no different. The quantum machines that in 10, 20 or 30 years will crack the
keys of today, will, according to several experts, be used to create a new
generation of ciphers - a
quantum generation of super encryption that will even cause headaches for
quantum computers.
Seriously,
a lot more James Bond films will premiere before the arms race with hackers produces
winners or losers.
*Maarten Keulemans is chief science editor of de Volkskrant.
