Quantum Computing

While this technology will accelerate fields like medicine and artificial intelligence, it also poses a massive threat to cybersecurity. Quantum computers will easily possess the processing power to break RSA encryption, which is the security standard currently used to protect all global bank transactions, private emails, and secure website connections.

To understand the scale of this problem, we must look at how modern cryptography works. Todays security systems rely on math problems that are too difficult for classical computers to solve, such as factoring massive prime numbers. However, a quantum computer running a specific set of instructions, known as Shors algorithm, can solve these exact mathematical problems almost instantly. This capability means that data intercepted today by cybercriminals could be easily decrypted in the near future once these machines become fully operational.