In what may be a huge milestone in computing, Google says it has achieved “quantum supremacy,” an experimental demonstration of the superiority of a quantum computer over a traditional one.

(Article by Karl Denninger republished from Market-Ticker.org)

The claim, made in a new scientific paper, is the most serious indication yet that the promise of quantum computers—an emerging but unproven type of machine—is becoming reality, including their potential to solve formerly ungraspable mathematical problems.

Essentially, Google purports to have pulled off a stunt on a quantum computer that no classical machine—not even the world’s most powerful supercomputer—can replicate.

We'll see.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

But -- if this proves up, especially their claims on scalability -- then everything we now consider to be "private" and "secure" is over.  Permanently.

Leave aside your privacy and contemplate what else is "over":

• "Secure" email.  Nope.  Trivially able to be cracked in seconds or minutes.  Even inside the government -- or military.
• A "Secure" (e.g. military) disk drive key, perhaps, say connected to a CAC card.  Nope.
• All payment network security.  Gone.
• All "https" security and all Internet payments.  Gone.
• All Fedwire security.  Gone.
• All "telemedicine" since anyone can watch.  Even "remote reading" of X-rays and CAT scans.  Gone.
• ALL cryptocurrency security and value.  All gone.

In other words all cybernetic security of any sort, ever, is irrevocably void.

All stored cryptographic data of any sort, no matter how or when generated, is now trivially decryptable.  There is nothing you can do about it.  Trunked communications to cops, the FBI, NSA, DSA, government, private industry, payment systems, banks, credit cards, chip cards, Apple and Google pay, proximity readers, etc -- all done.

Further, this Genie, once out of the bottle, will never be shoved back in.

Oh, "they" will try, but within days, weeks or months other actors will figure it out.  Someone will leak it, someone else will exploit it, and what always happens with any technology will happen again -- it will be duplicated and used everywhere.

China and Russia will have it in a week -- if they don't already have it.

The implications of this sort of thing, assuming Google is not lying and it stands up, are profound.

It is literally the end of electronic security in transmission and storage -- of anything.

You are now back to physical security.  That which never leaves your building and where you shoot anyone who tries to break in, is secure.  That which you physically hand to someone, they read and then burn, might be secure (well, other than by torturing the person who now has it in their head.)

That which leaves your physical control over a wire, over the air via RF, laser or other transmission technology is not ever, now or in the future, secure.

I don't have an opinion on the likely truth of these claims; I simply don't have enough information.

But if this is true then every bit of our "electronic" warfare infrastructure, every bit of our banking infrastructure, payments infrastructure, Internet commerce infrastructure and more is rendered instantly insecure immediately and permanently, and what's worse not only can you intercept and read any of it you can **** with it too.

This doesn't make attacking "symmetrical" cryptography easier.  But that's sort of like saying a one time pad hasn't been broken.  Duh.  However, distributing and securing the pad is, in such an environment, really no different than distributing the message, is it?  Which gets us right back to my first line -- you may as well use a typewriter and physically hand the message to someone.

And by the way, this doesn't make Google the "most valuable" company in the Internet space.

It makes all companies in the Internet space that actually try to make money in that space through exploiting the movement of money or information, which they control and thus derive value while limiting who can have access to it and charging for same, instantly worthless.

They are all zeros as without data security they have nothing to sell and no way to collect money on safe and secure basis for anything.  That means every single one of them is a zero, including Google, Facebook, Amazon and more.

They are ALL short-to-zeros.

Every last one.

Now there's something to contemplate.

Read more at: Market-Ticker.org