There are many stories we have all heard about computer hacking, identity theft and other harassing or criminal exploits involving digital assets. We all try to protect our systems and data, but it is extremely difficult now that there is so much data and so many devices involved. The volume of interaction and the volume of data has multiplied many times with the introduction of Smartphones, cellular networks and the Internet of Things (IoT). Who has the insight to realize that your refrigerator or your car can provide an easy way to break corporate or government networks? We really need to "protect" everything. A clear picture of how uncontrollable the spread of computer breaches is the existence of the "#1 Collection", which is a huge data folder that reveals nearly 800,000 email addresses and about 21 million passwords, all in a folder about 87 gigabytes. Contrary to criminal intent, the #1 Collection is just out there on a public hacking site for anyone to see - it's not for sale !!!
Securing digital devices and data is still based on encryption, the process of recoding data using a digital "key", and unlocking that data with just the same identical "key". Individuals and businesses can maximize the effectiveness of encryption by using "strong" passwords, where uppercase letters, symbols and numbers are mixed. Breaking modern encryption keys is very difficult, as the encryption has gone far beyond the original method used by Julius Caesar, simply by selecting a blank offset for each letter of the alphabet, eg: offset of "2" where each A ”Is recoded as“ C ”etc. There are only 25 chances for this recoding, so it is quite easy to break a Caesar code. Data encryption has made many leaps and bounds in the intervening years and is now considered to be almost non-existent. The easiest targets for hackers are logged passwords in your office and casual chats in the water cooler.
However, with the advent of quantum computing now, the ability to crack powerful encryption keys is getting closer and closer, simply because quantum computers are so fast and powerful that they can test many guesses in a very short time. This is the "brute force" hack, where with several guesses, the right key will eventually be found. What today may take 100 years to guess a fast, classic computer may only take 5 years with quantum computing.
Quantum computers use the basic principles of quantum mechanics to speed up computations, using flexible qubits instead of classic bits that can be just one zero or one. Qubits can be either one or both, or something in between. With quantum computers we should be able to design specially designed algorithms to solve specific problems, such as breaking passwords and designing passwords that cannot be broken. Today's leaders in quantum computing are IBM, Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, Intel, D-Wave Systems and Rigetti Quantum Computing. The race is underway to see who will dominate with Quantum solutions for the broad market. Within the next 10 years, the number of quantum computers will probably exceed the number of classic computers, ushering in a new era of computing, with speeds and power unimaginable just a few years ago. This will require more stable hardware, commercial software development platforms, and large, fast cloud computing capabilities.
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