Experts fear that a “quantum apocalypse” will happen that violates all current security systems

The quantum apocalypse is a new threat, poised to potentially disrupt all of our digital life as we know it. Hopefully, just like the Y2K scare, companies and individuals will get to work and implement solutions that make all the fear seem overblown.

The bad news is that quantum computing is much more complicated than what happened with Y2K and, lExperts are already warning of possible consequences as we move towards the quantum apocalypse.

What is all this about or what would be the problem? Quantum computers have the ability to be far more powerful than anything most people have access to today, and they are always being improved upon. When that leap finally comes, which will be impressive, much of our currently secure digital data will be immediately vulnerable to this technology. Encryption technologies that could take decades to crack with current hardware could take seconds with quantum computing, no matter how good the passwords are.

“Everything we do over the Internet today,” said Harri Owen, chief strategy officer at PostQuantum, “from buying things online, to banking transactions, to social media interactions, everything we do is encrypted.”

So the fear that much more powerful computers than we’re used to might suddenly exist and become available could genuinely affect the lives of many people. This leap could represent a huge gap, between those who have a quantum computer and those who don’t, and history doesn’t usually favor the latter.

As such, many people who want to take advantage of all this are working hard to develop these fast computers for purposes.

Quantum computing is probably still a decade away. Fortunately, this only gives us more time to prepare. Big tech companies and governments are already working to find solutions.

Source: BBC