First quantum gates in silicon

[Mark Rousell]

On 23/10/2015 08:54, Johan Wevers wrote:
> I just saw this posted in sci.crypt:
>
> http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/10/nsa-advisory-sparks-concern-of-secret-advance-ushering-in-cryptoapocalypse/
>
> Short quote from the article linked to above:
>
>     In August, National Security Agency officials advised US agencies
>     and businesses to prepare for a not-too-distant time when the
>     cryptography protecting virtually all sensitive government and
>     business communications is rendered obsolete by quantum computing.
>     The advisory recommended backing away from plans to deploy elliptic
>     curve cryptography, a form of public key cryptography that the NSA
>     spent the previous 20 years promoting as more secure than the older
>     RSA cryptosystem.
>
>     Almost immediately, the dramatic about-face generated questions and
>     anxiety. Why would the NSA abruptly abandon a series of ECC
>     specifications it had championed for so long? Why were officials
>     issuing the advice now when a working quantum computer was 10 to 50
>     years away, and why would they back away from ECC before
>     recommending a suite of quantum-resistant alternatives? The fact
>     that the NSA was continuing to endorse use of RSA, which is also
>     vulnerable to quantum computing, led some observers to speculate
>     there was a secret motivation that had nothing to do with quantum
>     computing.
>
>     On Tuesday, researchers Neal Koblitz and Alfred J. Menezes
>     published a paper titled A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma that
>     compiles some of the competing theories behind the August advisory.
>     The researchers stressed that that their paper isn't academic and
>     at times relies on unsourced facts and opinions. And sure enough,
>     some of the theories sound almost conspiratorial. Still, the paper
>     does a good job of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the
>     NSA's highly unexpected abandonment of ECC in a post quantum crypto
>     (PQC) world.

Sounds like an attempt as mass reverse psychology to me...


-- 
Mark Rousell

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