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Chinese scientists at Shanghai University have determined that a quantum computer from the Canadian firm D-Wave can effectively crack a popular encryption method.
Researchers found it can attack Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) encryption, which is used by web browsers, VPNs, email services, and chips from brands like Samsung and LG. It can also target the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which the US government adopted in 2001.
The paper details two technical methods "grounded in the quantum annealing algorithm, using pure quantum algorithm and quantum annealing combined with [a] classical algorithm to implement [an] RSA public key cryptography attack."
The researchers used a D-Wave Advantage quantum computer to achieve the "first 50-bit RSA integer decomposition," according to a translation. D-Wave quantum computers can be rented via a quantum cloud service for about $2,000 an hour. The machines themselves are exponentially more expensive (in 2017, a D-Wave quantum computer cost roughly $15 million).
"Our findings show that D-Wave's quantum technology can efficiently target encryption systems that protect sensitive information globally," the researchers said.
In years past, experts have called quantum computers "useless" and the hype around them "unnecessary." But last year, The Global Risk Institute, a Canadian organization that assesses the financial risk of potential world events, found that the majority of cryptography experts it surveyed believe quantum computers, more broadly, will be able to break anything encrypted with RSA-2048 within 24 hours within the next 30 years.
"There should be a conscious effort towards developing crypto-agility and building layered defenses against the quantum threat," the Global Risk Institute argued at the time.
Apple, too, previously warned of a looming quantum threat. Earlier this year, it launched a new security protocol, dubbed PQ3, for its encrypted iOS messaging app iMessage. The goal of PQ3 is to better protect its customers' data from being decrypted and exposed in the future.
"Even though they can’t decrypt any of this data today, they can retain it until they acquire a quantum computer that can decrypt it in the future, an attack scenario known as Harvest Now, Decrypt Later," Apple's research team said in February.
In 2022, Chinese researchers described a potential method to break RSA-2048 encryption, but argued that their method would require "millions of qubits" and therefore was "far beyond current technical capabilities." The D-Wave Advantage, by comparison, has over 5,000 qubits.