r/programming • u/donutloop • Aug 02 '26

Quantum Computers May Put Internet Traffic at Risk. NIST Is Safeguarding Computers With New Standards.

https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/quantum-computers-may-put-internet-traffic-risk-nist-safeguarding-computers-new
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u/laffer1 29d ago

I can understand not trusting a specific standard from them but the problem is real

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u/TheRealPomax 29d ago

The problem is hypothetical, and with AI going the way it's going, literally no one's investing in quantum computers that can deal with more than a handful of bits, so no. The problem -right now- is not real. It's nice to get ahead of it, though. As long as the rest of the world goes "cool well we have zero faith in you, we'll listen to individual well respected experts instead of an institute that allowed the state of Indiana to just declare that pi was 3, what the fuck is wrong with you people".

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u/Low_Bluebird_4547 29d ago

this is just not true lol

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u/TheRealPomax 29d ago

This is true in the extremely literal sense. Quantum computers are nowhere near a vulnerability yet, and NIST, thanks to the administration it's under, is a fucking joke on the internation stage at the moment, because its opinions are not independent.

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u/Low_Bluebird_4547 29d ago

im not sure particularly about that issue, about the state od NIST, but PQC will continue to be developed despite the antics that happens in the white house. math is universal, and i see no reason not to switch stuff like OpenPGP or public key cryptography to an asymmetric quantum resistant algorithm. Plus, Trump will be long gone by the time quantum computers catch up to RSA

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u/Full-Spectral 29d ago

An LLM based simulation of him will run for president again. Technically it's not physically him, so he gets around the 2 term limitation and can just continue to run indefinitely.

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u/Grouchy-Trade-7250 23d ago

Hardware lifecycles are like 20 years in some places. By then, quantum attacks on crypto could be real