How Quantum Computers Break The Internet… Starting Now

A quantum computer in the next decade could crack the encryption our society relies on using Shor’s Algorithm. Head to to start your free 30-day trial, and the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

The topic is especially relevant in the wake of Willow, the quantum computing chip unveiled by Google in December 2024.

#quantumcomputing

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A huge thank you to those who helped us understand this complex field and ensure we told this story accurately – Dr. Lorenz Panny, Prof. Serge Fehr, Dr. Dustin Moody, Prof. Benne de Weger, Prof. Tanja Lange, PhD candidate Jelle Vos, Gorjan Alagic, and Jack Hidary.

A huge thanks to those who helped us with the math behind Shor’s algorithm – Prof. David Elkouss, Javier Pagan Lacambra, Marc Serra Peralta, and Daniel Bedialauneta Rodriguez.

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References:
Joseph, D., et al. (2022). Transitioning organizations to post-quantum cryptography. Nature, 605(7909), 237-243. –

Bernstein, D. J., & Lange, T. (2017). Post-quantum cryptography. Nature, 549(7671), 188-194. –

An Insight, An Idea with Sundar Pichai – Quantum Computing, Wold Economic Forum via YouTube –

Migrating to Post-Quantum Cryptography, The White House –

Kotas, W. A. (2000). A brief history of cryptography. University of Tennessee –

Hellman, M. (1976). New directions in cryptography. IEEE transactions on Information Theory, 22(6), 644-654. –

Rivest, R. L., Shamir, A., & Adleman, L. (1978). A method for obtaining digital signatures and public-key cryptosystems. Communications of the ACM, 21(2), 120-126. –

Kak, A. (2023). Lecture 12: Public-Key Cryptography and the RSA Algorithm –

Calderbank, M. (2007). The RSA Cryptosystem: History, Algorithm, Primes. University of Chicago. –

Cryptographic Key Length Recommendation, Keylength –

Coppersmith, D. (2002). An approximate Fourier transform useful in quantum factoring. arXiv preprint quant-ph/0201067. –

Quantum Fourier Transform, Qiskit –

Shor, P. W. (1994, November). Algorithms for quantum computation: discrete logarithms and factoring. In Proceedings 35th annual symposium on foundations of computer science (pp. 124-134). IEEE. –

Shor’s algorithm, Wikipedia –

Euler’s totient function, Wikipedia –

Asfaw, A. (2020). Shor’s Algorithm Lecture Series, Qiskit Summer School –

How Quantum Computers Break Encryption, minutephysics via YouTube –

Breaking RSA Encryption – an Update on the State-of-the-Art, QuintessenceLabs –

O’Gorman, J., & Campbell, E. T. (2017). Quantum computation with realistic magic-state factories. Physical Review A, 95(3), 032338. –

Gidney, C., & Ekerå, M. (2021). How to factor 2048 bit RSA integers in 8 hours using 20 million noisy qubits. Quantum, 5, 433. –

2021 Quantum Threat Timeline Report, Global Risk Institute –

The IBM Quantum Development Roadmap, IBM –

Post-Quantum Cryptography, Computer Security Resource Center (NIST) –

Alagic, G., et al. (2022). Status report on the third round of the NIST post-quantum cryptography standardization process. US Department of Commerce, NIST. –

Thijs, L. (2015). Lattice cryptography and lattice cryptanalysis –

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Written by Casper Mebius & Derek Muller
Edited by Trenton Oliver
Filmed by Raquel Nuno
Animated by Ivy Tello & Mike Radjabov
Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images & Pond5
Music from Epidemic Sound & Jonny Hyman
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, & Emily Zhang

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