If we believe Edward Snowden, encryption is “the only true protection against surveillance” [1]. However, advances in quantum technology might endanger this safeguard. Our article discusses why quantum computing poses a threat to data security and what to do about it. Instead of a purely theoretical analysis, we build on code examples using Python, C, and Linux.
Quantum basics
When Google scientists reported the first case of quantum supremacy in 2019, they caused great excitement. One area where quantum computing could have significant impact is encryption. To understand this issue, we need to discuss some basics.