Why super-fast quantum computers could spell big trouble for the internet

When Google announced in the summer that it would add an update to its Chrome browser, it sounded like many of its other incrediblly technical and specific changes. Much of that work involves building new cryptography systems that will resist attack from quantum computers – those which rely on hard mathematical problems that will stay hard even on new technology – and then stress testing them to ensure they are secure. And the work has increased, with Joe Biden last year signing the "Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act" that requires US government agencies to work towards systems that can resist the new technology. "Some engineers even predict that within the next twenty or so years sufficiently large quantum computers will be built to break essentially all public key schemes currently in use. "Therefore, regardless of whether we can estimate the exact time of the arrival of the quantum computing era, we must begin now to prepare our information security systems to be able to resist quantum computing."