'Encryption. A word which holds a tremendous meaning in today's world, where hackers and hacking have become so common, encryption of data has somewhat became a necessity. But what exactly is encryption? Let's find out
ENCRYPTION: Just to make it simple, imagine you have some valuable information stored inside your house which, under any circumstances, cannot be released. So to protect it what do you do? You lock the house and bar the windows. That seems like a good option to ensure security, and well it is. Congratulations, you have successfully encrypted your information from the hackers, well in this case, the thieves. But can locking the house up or putting up bars on windows ensure a permanent solution to prevent decryption? The answer is NO! Encryption of data doesn't ensure that your data will be protected for a lifetime, it just means that decryption of that data would get more and more difficult. Hopefully so difficult that it would prevent people from actually acquiring it. In this scenario,the house is your computer and the thieves are the people who want hold on your valuable information.
QUANTUM COMPUTERS: The time has been revolutionized. Super computers have taken their place in providing faster and more efficient results. For instance, you might know the factors of the number 25. Even a personal computer, as a matter of fact, might actually give you the factors of a number as simple as 25. But what if you had to find the factors of the number 3729472920101847291010274? Tough right? Indeed it is. As far as the facts go, it almost took 200 years of computing and decryption to find the factors of a number so massive. But as we know, QUANTUM COMPUTERS are capable of doing the math. For them, decryption of complex data and information is immensely fast and this saves a lot of time. But how does this happen exactly? How can quantum computers decrypt such complex data? The answer is through an algorithm devised by Shor. Popularly known as SHOR'S ALGORITHM.
PETER SHOR'S ALGORITHM: The name might trigger your brain cells to conclude that this concept might be way too complex and difficult to understand. But in reality, it isn't. There is a way of encryption of data, as discussed earlier, by picking up a big number whose factors cannot be calculated by a hacker having a personal computer. But we are talking about QUANTUM COMPUTERS here, and here it's possible. SHOR'S algorithm generates a simple algorithm to calculate factors of any number through complex calculations but when done by quantum computers and quantum chips, it's ridiculously fast! And it happens in no time at all.
SHOR'S ALGORITHM MIGHT BE THE KEY WHICH CAN UNLOCK ALL YOUR STORED VALUABLES. IT'S A LIGHTSABER WHICH CAN DESTROY AND LOCKS OR BARS NO MATTER HOW STRONG THEY ARE.
So what do we do? Clearly SHOR'S algorithm is something we want to get rid off. But in the future, QUANTUM COMPUTERS might be fully capable of Decrypting any form of data howsoever be complex. Hence SUPER COMPUTERS CAN BREAK ENCRYPTION using SHOR'S algorithm.
In protection, there are many softwares and programs which devise a complex password for either you social media or any website which demands login. It may prevent decryption and will help in protecting your data.
STAY SCIENTIFIC, STAY PROTECTED. This is Aryan Panchal signing off.
Great blog!