Such a silly premise if you pause for a second and think about
practical threats. Suppose tomorrow a quantum computer is created that
can crack any cryptography. Would all ciphertext at rest magically
become decrypted? Would every communication on the wire mysteriously
revert to plaintext? This seems to be the woo-woo tone of the article.
Such a compQter would have to be a real, physical device. It cannot
disobey the laws of thermodynamics. Despite solving in a non-Turing
fashion it still needs energy commensurate with the computation
performed. Presumably any data to be processed must be brought to it
and the results dispatched. These real physical bottlenecks would
limit its utility. Sure it could be used on targeted communications,
and perhaps a well funded IC would set up a pipeline of the most
urgent unsolved cases having outstanding relevant files to crack. But
for all practical purposes little would change. Between the advent of
a POC and commodity availability several decades will pass. By the
same token, a breakthrough in quantum cryptanalysis will create
breakthroughs in quantum (resistant) cryptography, and replacement
technologies will track each other - a balance seen in cryptology
throughout the ages.
That said, such alarmist articles are useful to maintain public
awareness of our dependence on cryptographic processes, and keep-up
vigilance against more pedestrian threats - like mad politicians we
have in the UK.
Such a compQter would have to be a real, physical device. It cannot disobey the laws of thermodynamics. Despite solving in a non-Turing fashion it still needs energy commensurate with the computation performed. Presumably any data to be processed must be brought to it and the results dispatched. These real physical bottlenecks would limit its utility. Sure it could be used on targeted communications, and perhaps a well funded IC would set up a pipeline of the most urgent unsolved cases having outstanding relevant files to crack. But for all practical purposes little would change. Between the advent of a POC and commodity availability several decades will pass. By the same token, a breakthrough in quantum cryptanalysis will create breakthroughs in quantum (resistant) cryptography, and replacement technologies will track each other - a balance seen in cryptology throughout the ages.
That said, such alarmist articles are useful to maintain public awareness of our dependence on cryptographic processes, and keep-up vigilance against more pedestrian threats - like mad politicians we have in the UK.