[13730] in Cypherpunks
Re: Quantum Computers and stuff
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Mon May 16 09:22:47 1994
To: John K Clark <johnkc@well.sf.ca.us>
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 15 May 1994 20:56:58 PDT."
<199405160356.UAA21899@well.sf.ca.us>
Reply-To: perry@imsi.com
Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 09:17:20 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Bob Silverman claims that Shore's result is largely bullshit. I
haven't gotten any details yet, so I don't know for sure, but I'd say
at this point panic is not yet in order.
Perry
John K Clark says:
> >In a startling theoretical result that could call into question
> >any cryptosystem based on factoring, Peter W Shore of AT&T Bell
> >Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., has just proved that
> >factoring is "easy" when done on a special type of computer
> >operating according to quantum mechanical principles . Although
> >such a quantum computer does not yet exist, this finding has
> >shaken the cryptographic community.
>
> By "easy" I presume they mean solvable in Polynomical time. I'm
> not saying the writing is on the wall or anything but it might
> be prudent to start thinking about Diffe-Hellman, perhaps using
> elliptic curves.
