Shor’s Algorithm: The End of RSA Encryption? A quantum computer has just cracked the biggest RSA key ever to be recorded

Abstract

Imagine that one morning you wake up and go to your phone, open it, and see how much money you
have. All seems well, until you begin reading the headlines: a quantum computer has just cracked the
biggest RSA key ever to be recorded. All of a sudden, your entire financial history, all passwords saved,
all private messages – suddenly accessible to everyone. This is the risk of the algorithm of Shor.
I came to know about the Shor algorithm in a cryptography lecture, and I had doubts. The supposedly
easy-as-smashing-glass-with-hammer mathematical algorithm invented in 1994 that allegedly breaks
RSA codes? It was impossible for me. But it is there. It has spent more than 30 years on the shelves of
mathematicians until, lastly, it found a suitable hardware platform.