Quantum Cryptography

Abstract

Today, RSA cryptography is the last word in secure codes. Present-day computers are not fast enough to factor large numbers, and therefore cannot break RSA-encrypted messages. In the future, however, this situation may change. After hundreds of years of effort, no efficient factoring algorithm has been found, so the chance that such an algorithm exists seems slim. However, until it is proved that such an algorithm does not exist, the possibility that it exists and will some day be discovered, with disastrous results for RSA, cannot be ruled out. Another possibility is the development of a new type of computers (perhaps quantum computers, see http://www.qubit.org/), many orders of magnitude faster than today’s computers, that would be able to factor large numbers in reasonable time even with an inefficient factoring algorithm.