Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything

by Michio Kaku

The tremors caused by these remarkable achievements have also shaken boardrooms and top secret intelligence agencies around the world. Documents leaked by whistleblowers have shown that the CIA and the National Security Agency are closely following developments in the field. This is because quantum computers are so powerful that, in principle, they could break all known cybercodes. This means that the secrets carefully guarded by governments, which are their crown jewels containing their most sensitive information, are vulnerable to attack, as are the best-kept secrets of corporations and even individuals. This situation is so urgent that even the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which sets national policy and standards, recently issued guidelines to help large corporations and agencies plan for the inevitable transition to this new era. NIST has already announced they expect that by 2029 quantum computers will be able to break 128-bit AES encryption, the code used by many companies.