Chinese researchers claim to have uncovered a “real and substantial threat” to the classical cryptography widely used in banking and the military sectors. According to a report published by the SCMP, the researchers utilized a D-Wave quantum computer to mount the first successful quantum attack on widely used cryptographic algorithms. These algorithms, classed as substitution–permutation network (SPN) cryptographic algorithms, are at the heart of widely used standards like the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
The Chinese-language research paper is titled Quantum Annealing Public Key Cryptographic Attack Algorithm Based on D-Wave Advantage (PDF). The paper outlines how two technical approaches grounded in the quantum annealing algorithm can be used to challenge classical RSA cryptographic security.
