Leaps in quantum computing leaps may put DPI like Aadhaar and DigiLocker at risk if we don’t act quickly

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Traditional computers store information in bits. Quantum computers operate very differently. They use qubits, a whole new information architecture that leverages a quantum property called superposition, which allows them to occupy multiple states simultaneously.Quantum machines are no faster at ordinary tasks—the laptop on your desk will probably outperform them at writing documents or running spreadsheets.

What they are good at is a narrow class of mathematical problems, including some of those that underpin much of modern cryptography. Most digital systems are secured by one of two algorithms—RSA and ECC. The Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) algorithm operates on the assumption that it is computationally infeasible to factor the product of two very large primes.

This is used to protect email, enterprise systems and the digital certificates that secure public key infrastructure. Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) makes a similar bet on the discrete logarithm problem of elliptic curves. ECC is a lighter, faster alternative used where computational resources are constrained—such as mobile messaging apps, cryptocurrency wallets and authentication protocols.

In 1994, the mathematician Peter Shor developed an algorithm that solves both these problems using a quantum computer. He showed that breaking the cryptographic protections we rely on would take only one thing—a quantum computer. That said, despite decades of efforts to build one, it remains a notoriously challenging problem.