Hacker News Reader

When I developed a RSA based application I was worried about quantum computers breaking it (which proved false, I should had worried more about marketing). Now it seems that there is a flaw in quantum cryptography itself, which actually is not a cryptography in classical meaning, but rather a way of securely transmitting data.

View on HN

Actually you would worry more about incorrectly implemented padding or a side channel attack or something similarly stupid destroying your cryptosystem. Sad, but true.

Side-channels are just another way to "see" what is going on, whether it is on a keyboard, hard-disk, display, videoboard, CPU, bus, controller, etc.

You've got execution time (latency), sounds, radio frequencies, electromagnetic fields, etc. just to cite the 'accidental' leak channels that act as a side-effect of the intended infrastructure.

we're not secure.

You're conflating two different things (quantum computers and quantum cryptography) which just happen to share a basis in quantum effects. An attack on quantum cryptography has nothing whatsoever to do with whether a quantum computer could be used to break conventional encryption.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com