Google claims to have achieved quantum supremacy.
But — if this proves up, especially their claims on scalability — then everything we now consider to be “private” and “secure” is over. Permanently.
Leave aside your privacy and contemplate what else is “over”:
- “Secure” email. Nope. Trivially able to be cracked in seconds or minutes. Even inside the government — or military.
- A “Secure” (e.g. military) disk drive key, perhaps, say connected to a CAC card. Nope.
- All payment network security. Gone.
- All “https” security and all Internet payments. Gone.
- All Fedwire security. Gone.
- All “telemedicine” since anyone can watch. Even “remote reading” of X-rays and CAT scans. Gone.
- ALL cryptocurrency security and value. All gone.
In other words all cybernetic security of any sort, ever, is irrevocably void.
All stored cryptographic data of any sort, no matter how or when generated, is now trivially decryptable. There is nothing you can do about it. Trunked communications to cops, the FBI, NSA, DSA, government, private industry, payment systems, banks, credit cards, chip cards, Apple and Google pay, proximity readers, etc — all done.
Further, this Genie, once out of the bottle, will never be shoved back in.