cryptography

Quantum computers are going to overthrow classical cryptography sooner than expected

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Just two weeks ago a group of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of California at Berkeley and the emerging company Oratomic published a scientific article preliminary in which they explore the capabilities of quantum computers of neutral atoms. These machines are an alternative to quantum computers with superconducting qubits and ion traps, and are still in an experimental phase. However, these scientists have estimated that Shor’s algorithm can be implemented using a quantum computer equipped with between 10,000 and 20,000 qubits of neutral atoms. In fact, in their article they even propose a design with which in theory it would be possible break bitcoin encryption in a few days using 26,000 qubits of neutral atoms. In any case, these researchers are not the only ones who in recent weeks have alerted us to the ability to violate classical cryptography that quantum computers will acquire in a relatively short period of time. At the end of last March, Google’s quantum artificial intelligence group published a study in which he demonstrates that the elliptic curve encryption used by Bitcoin or Ethereum, among other cryptocurrencies, can be overthrown using far fewer resources than initially estimated. According to these researchers, a quantum computer with less than half a million physical qubits will be able to decipher the algorithms used by current cryptocurrencies in a few minutes. In short, the scientific community has agreed that classical encryption technologies will be vulnerable before the arrival of large-scale quantum hardware. The first steps to protect ourselves have already been taken Quantum computing experts have known for several years that quantum computers they will end classical cryptography. That moment came in May 2024. A team of researchers from the University of Shanghai (China) led by Professor Wang Chao used a D-Wave quantum computer to successfully break SPN encryption (Substitution-Permutation Network), which is a cryptographic algorithm used to encrypt information. This encryption is the cornerstone of, for example, the AES standard (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is used a lot. These scientists published the results of their research in an interesting article titled “Quantum Processing-Based Public Key Cryptographic Attack Algorithm with the D-Wave Advantage.” However, this is not all. And in mid-May 2025, several Google researchers posted an entry in the blog dedicated to the security of this American company in which they maintain a crucial premise: an RSA integer (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) 2,048 bits can be factored in less than a week with a quantum computer of less than a million qubits. A 2,048-bit RSA integer can be factored in less than a week with a quantum computer of less than a million qubits Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and the other modern cryptocurrencies use a cryptography technique known as elliptic curve that is more robust, efficient and difficult to break than RSA, but its mathematical foundations are similar to those of the latter encryption algorithm. In fact, according to the Google scientists who authored the article I mentioned above, if future quantum computers will have a harder time breaking RSA encryption than initially expected, elliptic curve cryptography will also fall relatively easily. So far we have talked about cryptocurrencies, but it is crucial that we do not overlook that encryption technologies play a fundamental role in our daily lives. In fact, WhatsApp and Telegram use them to encrypt our messages; banks turn to them to protect our transactions and every time we buy something on the internet it is encryption that is responsible for protecting our credit card information. These are just some of the applications of this technology. The threat of quantum computers to encryption technologies is very real, but we have no reason to panic because many researchers have been working on the solution to this challenge for several years. In fact, most of the theoretical work has already been done. In 2024, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published an initial set of standards that includes a post-quantum key exchange mechanism and several post-quantum digital signature schemes. The work that has already been done invites us to foresee that the moment relevant quantum computers appear from a cryptographic point of view, the technologies that will be able to protect our information will already be ready. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | arXiv | Google In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

Google sets a date for “Q-Day”, when quantum computing will be able to break current cryptography sooner than expected

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The arrival of the quantum computing brings us closer to an exciting horizon. It is a paradigm shift because, if classical computing is based on bits of 0 and 1, quantum computing uses qubits that can be in both states at the same time. Translation: if classical computing does operations one at a time, quantum computing does many at the same time. This opens up an ocean of possibilities, and will also allow any current encryption system to be broken. in a matter of seconds. Google has been around for a decade getting readyand has set a date for his arrival. 2029. PQC. It stands for post-quantum cryptography. It is a set of encryption algorithms designed to resist attacks by quantum computers and allow data that must be encrypted such as keys and digital signatures to remain so in the long term. Those complex mathematical algorithms designed to resist quantum attacks are designed to be implemented on classical computers. That is, it is not the hardware that is updated, but rather the security. Quantum cryptography is another approach, but also more experimental. It is the one that will use the full potential of quantum computing to achieve theoretically unbreakable security. The one that interests us at the moment is post-quantum, and it makes perfect sense because classical and the quantum They will coexist, and what is needed is to update encryption systems so that companies continue to have classic computers, but with security that resists quantum attacks. Q-Day. Companies have been preparing for this for a long time and, as we say, Google is one of them. Carry from 2016 investing in that post-quantum cryptography, migrating some key exchange systems for internal traffic to the post-quantum standard. A while ago they claimed that key exchange within Google services is now resistant to quantum computing by default. Proton also is in it. So as not to leave it there as a pending task that is never finished, they finish to mark a self-imposed deadline to complete the transition. By 2029 they will have to complete this migration of their security to PQC systems. In fact, on their blog, they have announced that Android 17 will integrate an algorithm that will provide quantum-resistant signatures to protect the integrity of boot software. It is a way of saying “hey, we are already preparing,” but basically what there is is a commitment to that security for a time that is near. And it won’t just be the boot system: applications will be able to generate and verify post-quantum signatures within the devices’ secure hardware, and Google Play itself will also begin generating secure keys for applications that choose to participate in the program during the launch cycle of the new system. The industry prepares. Aside from the announcement, the company urged the rest of the technology industry and governments to step up to accelerate the adoption of these more resistant encryption systems. And, although Google has been saying “the wolf is coming” for several years, they are not the only ones. Microsoft wants to start migrating its systems by 2029, culminating in 2033. US federal agencies also want do it for the 2030-2035 window and the European Commission has urged member states to make critical infrastructure resilient by the end of 2030. With this movement, Google has set a date that seems ambitious and is a declaration of intentions. “It is our responsibility to set an example and share an ambitious schedule,” says Google. It is also evident that as a digital infrastructure provider, offering a post-quantum security system before anyone else gives you a competitive advantage because if someone doesn’t arrive on time, they could always buy your services. Companies like Telefónica are also working on it, but when we talk to them They did not give us an indicative date. What they did comment is that they are beginning to see that there are parts of the industry that are becoming interested in their post-quantum cryptography services. Don’t panic. that the arrival of quantum computing represents a headache for everything that is encrypted (blockchain and cryptocurrencies, banking data and transactions and even messaging apps) does not mean that we have to panic. A few months ago, Keith Martin, professor in the Information Security Group at the University of London, commented that, although the threat is realresearchers have been working for years and most of the theoretical work is done. When cryptographically relevant quantum computers appear, the protection technologies will already be ready and we will not have to worry about anything. In fact, at the user level… we can do little. We are not going to be the ones who have a quantum computer at home to be able to encrypt our information. Basically, as I said a few lines ago, it is Google saying “get ready because this is going to come and, as an industry, we have to prepare.” And they have already set a date. There’s not much left… Image | Xataka In Xataka | Putin compared the quantum race to the nuclear race of the Cold War. China has just taken a leap in that war of the future

In the middle of World War II, a woman illuminated modern cryptography. The FBI then hid it from us.

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He did not study mathematics, nor did he enlist in the army: Elizabeth FriedmanShe simply fell in love with Shakespeare and that love embarked her on an adventure that led her to uncover Nazi spy networks in World War II, lock up Al Capone’s lackeys, and lay the foundations of the modern NSA. This is the story of how, with the only help of a pencil and paper, a poet from the American Midwest became one of the most important cryptographers in the United States. It is also the story of how they hid their work and we forgot about it for decades. Although she was the youngest of new siblings and grew up in a Quaker family in rural Illinois, Elizebeth graduated in English literature for him Hillsdale College of Michigan. Almost immediately she began working as a teacher. That seemed like it would be his vocation until Shakespeare crossed his path again. The Newberrya Chicago research library, was looking for an assistant. It was nothing too striking except for the fact that, it was said, an original by the Stratford-upon-Avon playwright was kept in the library’s holdings. That was enough for Elizebeth. It was there, working at Newberry, where he met George Fabyana millionaire convinced that Shakespeare’s plays had been written by Francis Bacon. It is not a very strange belief, for centuries the confusing past of the English poet has generated rivers of ink about who William Shakespeare really was. What had not happened until then was that an eccentric billionaire decided to put his fortune at the service of the idea. In 1916, at the age of 23, Elizebeth began working at the Fabyan think tank, a private laboratory, Riverbankwhere things as varied as genetic engineering or they worked on the development of weapons. Now, he would also have a team dedicated to finding the clues that Bacon ‘had left’ in works like ‘Hamlet’ or ‘Romeo and Juliet’. That Riverbank was surely one of the first modern cryptography laboratories. There Elizebeth met her husband, William Friedman. Together, and unintentionally, they would shape modern American cryptography and play a very important role in the next 50 years of American defense. ‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers’ It all started because, in the middle of the First World War, the army decided to turn to Riverbank to help them with code breaking. It was such a great success that the Secretary of War signed them and took the couple to Washington, DC. Shortly after arriving, Elizebeth began working for the Treasury: the eighteenth amendment (the famous Prohibition) and alcohol trafficking networks were rampant throughout the United States. Elizebeth was terribly productive. It is estimated that, between 1926 and 1930, he deciphered an average of 20,000 smugglers’ messages a year, dismantling hundreds of ciphers in the process. And the Second World War. The role of American cryptographers “was not very important”, but among them the Friedmans shined especially. Elizebeth’s skills were already known and served to dismantle a complex network of Nazi spies in Latin America that tried to promote fascist revolutions and weaken the “backyard” of the United States. Despite this, resources were very scarce and recognition even less. Surely his most impressive work was the one that led to the arrest and imprisonment of Velvalee Dickinsonthe “doll woman”, a spy arrested in 1942 for passing all kinds of information to Japan (hidden in letters about patent leather dolls) during World War II. “His abilities were so unusual that he became indispensable,” he explained. Jason Fagone who has written a spectacular book on Friedman’The Woman who smashed codes‘. “She was called on repeatedly to solve problems that no one else could solve. A secret weapon.” However, and despite the publicity of these cases, the Friedman surname did not transcend. It was not an forgetfulness. Hoover, the famous and controversial director of the FBI, wiped the Friedmans off the map and awarded the merits of each of the cases to his Agency. Nothing surprising in a figure, that of Hoover, key in much of the American 20th century, capable of creating the largest research office in the world and, at the same time, using it as if it were his ‘private army’. Although Elizebeth’s work and that of her husband were the seed of what would later become the NSA, their figure was forgotten, relegated and, until very few years ago, remained unrescued in the drawer of history. In 1999 he entered the NSA ‘Hall of Fame’ and in 2002 a building was dedicated to him. It’s another one of those ‘hidden figures‘without which we could not understand today’s world. In Xataka | In 1925, procrastination was already a problem and someone found the definitive solution: the isolation helmet. In Xatka | Scotland remains almost a fiefdom in the 21st century: half of its land is owned by 421 owners

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