10 May 2022

New White House directive warns of cryptological risks from quantum computers

JASPREET GILL

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden today will sign two directives aimed at advancing quantum science, including a memorandum outlining his administration’s plan to address national security risks posed by quantum computers that could be capable of cracking the Defense Department’s encryption.

Quantum computers, one of many quantum information science applications, is a “fundamentally different kind of computer with the ability to analyze information in ways that traditional computers cannot,” according to a White House press release announcing the directives.

Although the Biden administration welcomes “the many promising applications of QIS,” it also acknowledges that advances in quantum technologies pose a risk specifically to America’s economic and national security, a senior administration official told reporters yesterday

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