Post-Quantum Cryptography: The Implications Of Google's Willow And Other Quantum Computers For Cybersecurity
Security Boulevard, Monday, December 16th, 2024
Quantum computing was long considered to be part of a distant future. However, it is quickly becoming a reality. Google's recent announcement of its Willow quantum computing chip is a breakthrough generating significant media attention and questions about the implications for cybersecurity.
Google's Willow advancements are significant because of two major breakthroughs critical to the commercialization and adoption of useful quantum computers. The first is that Willow reduces errors as it scales up to more qubits. Historically, the major challenge with quantum computing has been that adding more qubits causes the error rate to increase, rendering the quantum computer impractical for solving complex problems. The second major achievement is the speed of Willow's computations. Using the random circuit sampling (RCS) benchmark, Willow completed a computation in less than 5 minutes that would take a classical supercomputer 10 septillion years.