Re: IS this for real?!

From: Tom St Denis (tom_at_securescience.net)
Date: 06/30/04 

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 00:16:56 GMT

mike3 wrote:

> I found this: http://www.disappearing-inc.com/ciphers/rsa.html
>
> Look at the ADDENDUM. Quantum chip with 1 million Q bits? I guess that
> PGP is toast. What is this? Are they really on the brink of building a
> Q chip that can crack the cipher?

"While quantum chips may not exist outside simulations yet, they have been
demonstrated to be feasable and capable of being fabricated"

That's being a bit hasty. Few QCs are known to exist and most are very
basic ~20 qubits and VERY difficult to produce.

Again I re-iterate my original argument that the time it takes to build a QC
should be part of the equation [so to speak]. If a 1024-bit factoring QC
takes 2^100 time to develop you might as well use GNFS, etc, etc.

Of course you have to realize that they've been on the "brink" of making
super QCs for a decade [or more] now. The recipe is

1. Simulate in Maple a QC
2. Get slashdotted about breaking RSA-6 [6-bit RSA]
3. Claim end of world as we know it.

Sure one day QC will probably be well quantified and developed. That
doesn't appear to be the case today and not likely in the near future.

Tom