(4/17/98)
A small team of researchers has succeeded in building a prototype of the so-called "quantum computer" that can factor large numbers quickly and defeat public-key cryptosystems.
The researchers cracked the DES-IV-1 challenge, revealing the message "Can't anyone around here keep a secret?"
Since the new computer is based on superconducting quantum interference devices, it is not bound by conventional temporal limits on computation. In fact, the researchers were able to use their system to crack challenges that had not yet been created. These future secret messages included, "God in Heaven, what have we done?" and the cryptic "imagine machine five five" -- which clearly shows that future challenges are going to use multiple layers of encryption.
President Clinton congratulated the researchers, but said that he was considering a proposal to ban the export of quarks from the United States until the NSA could implement a quark escrow system, by which each quark in the universe would be uniquely numbered.
When asked if their invention would enable scientists to foretell the future, the researchers pointed out that they can only decrypt messages that are encrypted using certain methods that are known today. Furthermore, there is no way for them to determine if the messages that they receive are authentic or if unknown people are sending false messages to confuse us.
"If only there were a reliable way to digitally sign a transmission," bemoaned one of the researchers.