Q-day

Remember Y2K?  How we all waited for planes to fall out of the sky, for our computers to implode, for every computerised device in the world to implode. And then nothing happened.

The next tech scare on the horizon is Q-day — the day when quantum computers get to be so big that they can crack all the encryption codes that currently make our systems work.  One basic encryption code, RSA, relies on calculating the product of two large numbers which generates a third number so big  that not even a supercomputer could handle it.  But in a decade or two quantum computers will handle such huge numbers with ease.  Our whole digital society will come unstuck.  Banks will no longer be able to keep our money safe.  Governments will no longer be able to keep their secrets.  In fact all our private data will be ripe for the picking.  We need to find new encryption algorithms that can give even quantum computers a headache. And we need to find them soon — or else prepare to withdraw from all communications and put money in a sock under the bed.