Chinese researchers crack military-grade encryption using quantum computer: Here's how
What's the story
In a major breakthrough in quantum computing, Chinese researchers have successfully hacked a military-grade encryption algorithm.
The feat was accomplished with a D-Wave quantum computer, marking the first successful quantum attack on widely used encryption algorithms.
The D-Wave Advantage system, which was initially designed for non-cryptographic usage, breached the Substitution-Permutation Network-structured (SPN) algorithms in the process.
Quantum advantage
Quantum tunneling effect aids in encryption breach
The researchers noted that while specific passcodes haven't been cracked yet, this development is a major early-stage threat.
They emphasized the unique quantum tunneling effect of D-Wave special quantum computers, which can bypass local extremes that traditional intelligent algorithms often encounter.
This feature makes it a sort of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm with global optimization-seeking capability.
Quantum strategies
Researchers propose 2 technical approaches
The researchers proposed two technical approaches, both based on the quantum annealing algorithm, to implement an RSA public key cryptography attack.
One approach involved transforming the mathematical process of a cryptographic attack into a combinatorial optimization problem or exponential space search problem, solved by Ising model or QUBO model.
The second approach combined the quantum annealing algorithm with mathematical methods of cryptographic attacks to optimize assaults on cryptographic components.
Algorithm efficiency
Quantum tunneling algorithm's role in encryption breach
The researchers combined the classical lattice reduction algorithm with Schnorr algorithm, and modified the Babai algorithm's rounding direction with the quantum tunneling effect for accurate vector determination.
They elaborated, "Leveraging the exponential acceleration capabilities of quantum computing, we address the challenge by computing two rounded directions for solutions on each bit of an N-dimensional lattice."
This way, they can search an exponential solution space, something that traditional computing methods can't do.