Briefly this week, it appeared that quantum computers might finally be ready to break 2048-bit RSA encryption, but that moment has passed.
The occasion was the publication of an academic paper by no less than two dozen authors affiliated with seven different research institutions in China.
The paper, titled “Factoring integers with sublinear resources on a superconducting quantum processor,” suggests that the application of Claus Peter Schnorr’s recent factoring algorithm, in conjunction with a quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), can break asymmetric RSA-2048 encryption using a non-fault tolerant (NISQ, or noisy intermediate scale quantum) quantum computer with only 372 physical quantum bits or qubits.
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Source: The Register