Breaking RSA: Noise in the Race to Post-Quantum Security?

​Chinese researchers from Shanghai University recently made headlines by using a D‑Wave quantum annealer to factor a 22‑bit RSA key, akin to cracking an incredibly weak password, marking the largest key broken with quantum annealing to date.

Despite alarmist headlines warning of “global data security at risk,” this milestone is a proof-of-concept, not a real-world threat. The team reframed factorisation as an optimisation problem suited for annealing hardware, sidestepping the classic Shor’s algorithm used by universal quantum computers. Yet, the 22-bit scope is trivial compared to the 2048-bit encryption securing modern communications, and scaling remains exponential and far from production-ready.

Still, such experiments spotlight the urgency for post‑quantum cryptography.

Agencies like NIST are already developing quantum-resistant standards to prepare before “Q‑Day” ever arrives. The takeaway? Celebrate the quantum progress, but don’t panic yet…

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