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Computers made cryptography boring (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/technology@hexbear.net
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We used to do all kinds of crazy stuff with pen and paper or funky mechanical tools.

But then along comes Horst Feistel at IBM and just makes it sooo boring. Everything is computers!

Security tokens are sooo boring. Give me back a code wheel and make me do some crap with a cryptex or something.

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[–] 3 points 2 days ago (1 child)

There was a big concern over quantum computing breaking all the common cryptography recently, is that still a thing?

It is. Many services now taut post-quantum cryptography as it's believed by many that functional quantum computers will be a reality withing the next few years.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/yikes-encryptions-y2k-moment-coming-years-early

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

    From my (relatively lay) understanding, the mechanism used to break encryption using quantum computers works by reducing the complexity of factorization from exponential time to polynomial time. The largest number known to be factored using this method is 15.

    It doesn't hurt to adopt post-quantum algorithms, but I doubt the technology is coming in the near future. Not from our education system, anyway. Maybe it could have happened if we sunk trillions into that instead of the magic conch.

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