Thirty-Year-Old Encryption Formula Can Resist Quantum-Computing Attacks That Defeat All Common Codes

This is the equivalent of finding out that an ancient mummy has the cure for AIDS or cancer. Weird.

Ha ask and you shall receive. I just posted on another article asking the difference between probability processing and quantum computing and this article answered that. Sqweet.

Or that Romans had a better recipe for cement than we do now? (Turns out they did.)

Yeah well back to the basics

This is more like finding a book made 30 years ago is still interesting today.

Just because a problem from 30 years ago hasn't been cracked doesn't mean it's that much better, but just different. If this started being used in regular encription I'm sure someone would figure out how to crack it in a month or so.

There are languages that are thousands of years old that people have a hard time deciphering, but that doesn't make them better, only different than we're used to.

Actually this is not surprising at all for me. People seldom realize that mathematicians have been "solving" "problems" long before they were found useful, for a long time. I remember when I heard about the how they patented the ZIP algorithm that was in fact a mathematically formula developed 40 years before that (they didn't have to worry the mathematician was long dead).

And as to the idea that these are just different, and once known they could be cracked in a month. The basic math used in current encryption has been known for many decades if not centuries, and they certainly haven't been able to break them in a month. Sure eventually they might break them, but that doesn't mean that it will be simple.

as tcolguin said, mathematicians have been solving problems we didnt even know were problems yet. i recall some professors doing excessively complicated math work to see who would get the biggest slice of pizza, and it ended up being useful for some obscure purpose. google fails me for recovering this article bssed on what i remember :(

I actually find this incredibly amusing.

Here's why :

"Security researchers using hardware hacking techniques have unearthed generic flaws in supposedly ultra-secure quantum cryptography systems.

The security of quantum cryptography hinges on using the fundamental properties of quantum physics for quantum key exchange. Any attempts to monitor this exchange would inevitably be detected as increased noise on the line and an abandoned data exchange. That principle remains solid and the attack, like others before it, relies on exploiting implementation flaws."

There's even a documentation as pictures and reports, here:

www.iet.ntnu.no/groups/optics/qcr/hacking-commercial-quantum-cryptography-2010/

(not quite sure I followed the link rule - says starting with www but anyway apologies in advance ..)

Personally, I would call any claim of fool-proof security (which it may not be directly, but it does imply it in some form and the point remains the same) not only foolish, but it's in essence using the old security through obscurity thinking (which is foolish actually).

And of course, just realized one more thing :

It could be a specific algorithm (as I see now). However, again, the same point is there. Two commercial quantum physic encryption algos were cracked, which is to say they can all be, in time. Sure, it's interesting, but I don't think there will ever be an algorithm that is 100% secure. Unfortunately (fortunately to some) there's so many different ways, even indirectly (brute forcing) - you still get what you want. Though I guess with semantics, you can say the algorithm is not cracked. But the main point (I would think) is that the algorithm is there to protect something, and no matter how it's done, if it's found or discovered, it's not protecting that thing.

humbug is onto something, true quantum computing would be able to "hear" when it was being cracked . What is being called quantum computing is very very basic. probably the equivalent of the first division of a fetus. any real quantum computer could bypass any existing system, virtually instantaneously. Likely true quantum encryption is unbreakable except to those meant to decrypt it. in theory any attempt to "listen" would entangle the system, making it very easy to track. quantum computers might put security software makers out of business.