Will quantum computing become the ultimate hacking weapon?

[Arthur Hanson]

Any thoughts or comments on this would be appreciated and how to deal with it.

 

[Daniel Nenni]

Any thoughts or comments on this would be appreciated and how to deal with it.

Short answer: It could become a powerful tool for breaking certain cryptographic systems, but it is not an unstoppable “ultimate hacking weapon,” and the world is already preparing for it.

Long answer from ChatGPT:

The major worry is public-key cryptography—systems like RSA and ECC that protect:

• - HTTPS connections
• - Banking and financial traffic
• - VPNs
• - Software updates
• - Secure messaging handshakes

A sufficiently large, fault-tolerant quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could factor large numbers or compute discrete logs efficiently, which means:

• It could break many current encryption schemes.
• Encrypted data stolen today could be decrypted later (“harvest now, decrypt later”).

But this requires millions of stable qubits with extremely low error rates, something no one is close to achieving.

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What quantum computers​

Quantum computing does not magically bypass all security. It cannot:

• Instantly “hack” passwords
• Break modern symmetric encryption like AES-256 (only small speedups)
• Control devices remotely
• Read minds, spy through walls, or other sci-fi abilities

Most hacking today is:

• Social engineering
• Software vulnerabilities
• Weak configurations
• Human error
  Quantum computing doesn’t help much with those.

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Reality check: How close are we?​

We are decades away from a machine capable of breaking strong cryptography. The barriers are still enormous:

• Error correction
• Qubit coherence
• Scaling to millions of qubits
• Energy and cooling demands

Today’s quantum machines are great for research and niche simulations—not breaking encryption.

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The defense is already ahead​

The cybersecurity world is not waiting.
Governments and standards bodies are rolling out post-quantum cryptography (PQC):

• NIST has already selected quantum-resistant algorithms (e.g., CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium).
• Major companies (Google, Cloudflare, Microsoft, Apple) are deploying early PQC upgrades.
• The transition will take years, but it’s underway.

By the time quantum computers are strong enough to break classical crypto, PQC will likely be widely deployed.

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Bottom line​

Quantum computing will become a significant cybersecurity concern—but not an unstoppable hack-everything weapon.

• It threatens specific cryptographic mechanisms.
• It does not make general hacking magically easy.
• And the defenses (post-quantum cryptography) are arriving before the threat matures.

If you'd like, I can also explain:

• How quantum-safe crypto works
• What industries will need to migrate first
• Whether “quantum hacking” could ever threaten consumers directly