[5814] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
RE: Rumor of a working quantum computer
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Trei, Peter)
Fri Oct 1 11:21:48 1999
Message-ID: <D104150098E6D111B7830000F8D90AE8E62AA4@exna02.securitydynamics.com>
From: "Trei, Peter" <ptrei@rsasecurity.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net, "'Keith Dawson'" <dawson@world.std.com>
Cc: "Trei, Peter" <ptrei@rsasecurity.com>,
"'ben.hammersley@the-times.co.uk'" <ben.hammersley@the-times.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 13:53:22 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Keith Dawson[SMTP:dawson@world.std.com] writes:
>Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 9:00 AM
>Subject: Rumor of a working quantum computer
>To: cryptography@c2.net
>Anyone heard word on this rumor? The Sunday Times story claims
>that a European Institute of Quantum Computing Network has been
>hastily formed to develop commercial banking codes based on
>quantum entanglement.
> The institute was founded a few weeks after news leaked from
> the Israel's Weizmann Institute that it was using a mixture of
> quantum computing and special optical technology to break
> the RSA-512 code, the system used by the European banking
> system. It claims it has developed a hand-held device that
> can break the code in 12 microseconds.
>The "special optical technology" sure sounds like someone has
>implemented Shamir's TWINKLE already.
>[TWINKLE I can believe. Quantum computers sound fishy. --Perry]
>Is there any truth to this?
>
>http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/09/29/timintint02001.html?1
341861
The short answer seems to be 'No.'
Venerable as the Times of London is, I've found the
fact-checking at the Sunday Times to be wanting on
occasion. While www.eiqc.org is a real web site, it is
curiously content free - the only contact points listed
are email addresses in other domains, and the only
'meat' in terms of quantum research lie in pointers to
other sites, none of which mention a working quantum
computer. It's particularly interesting that the EIQC
site mentions nothing about the Weizmann Institute's
purported use of quantum and optical methods to quickly
crack RSA-512, since that is the alleged reason for it
was created.
.
The only paper directly referenced is TWINKLE, and that's
refered to at jya.com, rather than WPI (where the paper
was presented), or Technion U. (where the research was
done).
I asked Bob Silverman, the Senior Research Scientest
and factoring expert here at RSA Security, about
this, and his opinion was that the EIQC and the claims
for a working quantum computer were almost certainly a
hoax.
I think the Times got snookered on this one.
Peter Trei
ptrei@rsasecurity.com
Disclaimer: The above represents my (and Bob's)
personal opinions only, and should not be
construed as neccesarily representing those of
our employer.
