Shor’s Algorithm
Much of the buzz around quantum computing comes from one simple fact: a quantum computer with several thousand qubits can solve a certain strategic problem that classical computers have no hope of solving.
In 1994 [1], Peter Shor unveiled an algorithm to crack today’s widely used encryption schemes. Decrypting a message might take trillions of years on a classical computer. But Shor’s algorithm, running on a sufficiently large quantum computer, can decrypt a message in less than a minute. It would be nice if most people welcomed a solution to this decryption problem. But, unfortunately, most people who want to break encryption schemes are malicious hackers.
Businesses and governments are taking this problem seriously. At this very moment (no matter when you’re reading this), people around the world are developing post-quantum cryptography schemes. These newly formulated schemes must be resistant to vulnerabilities arising from quantum...
