The first application uses advanced algorithms that a quantum computer can make practically possible. Peter Shor, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the pioneers of quantum computing, developed an algorithm for analyzing numbers using quantum computing. As currently known, numbers analysis is the main technique in data coding processes due to its difficulty. This algorithm, when applied, will reduce the time needed to analyze a number logarithmically. To be more specific, a regular algorithm for analyzing a number consisting of 15 digits needs 32,768 steps, and by using Shor’s algorithm, it will need 3,375 steps, but if the number consists of 20 digits, we will need 1,048,576 steps in comparison to the 800 steps of Shor’s algorithm.
This means that many cryptographic systems currently in place will be easy to crack in hours and that new systems and technologies will appear to save data. Shor’s algorithm alone poses a threat to public-key cryptographic systems such as RSA, which are used frequently in our daily activities when surfing the Internet and which mathematical defenses depend in part on how difficult it is to perform the opposite steps to derive the results of multiplying very large primes together. A report on quantum computing that was published in 2018 by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine predicted that a high-capacity quantum computer implementing Shor’s algorithm would be able to crack the executive version of RSA algorithm with a 1,024-bit key in less than one day.
