QUANTUM COMPUTERS & Fraud, Phishing, On-line merchant accounts

[cueperkins]

Hi Brumby....I agree...and in this day and age, what's stopping someone from setting up something that looks for all intents like it is a merchant facility?...almost like a phishing site or the likes.

I've been reading about Wollongong University getting funding to research Quantum computer technology for anti cyber terrorism purposes..of course, once developed, it would transpose itself over to banks, businesses etc.  They note that frauds are using quantum technology to develop new and better ways of hacking website security in just about every way shape and form...of course, the funding to the Uni is focused on encryption defenses against quantum technology....at a Govt level first....it's fascinating stuff, but also a tad worrying.

Now, I'm a real hobbit when it comes to this level of IT...but I'm sure I can find the article again.....and it's this that worries me given the sophistication of frauds these days...I have to imagine that anything is possible until someone points out why it's not.....brave new world this one.

[*Brum6y*]

Quantum computing.

Yoicks!

Have been fascinated by the concept but not spent a lot of time reading up on it.  The only practical example of it I've heard of is a multiplication problem: 5 x 3 = ? (research stuff) but that's a while ago.

I expect there's still some way to go before practical machines exist - but then who'd have guessed the last 30 years in computing?  When I started in IT, a 70MB disk pack was the ants pants and would be mounted in a drive the size of a large domestic washing machine - if you'd said I could buy 2GB of memory for under $15 in a chip smaller than a postage stamp that fitted into your mobile phone that could play movies - I'd have sent you off to see Asimov.

My basic understanding with quantum computing is that quantum processors calculate ALL answers to a problem at the same time - with the trick being to find the correct answer. With the construction and programming of these machines, encryption with today's methods will be next to useless - since they rely on an extremely large number of permutations for security.

Think I'll just make wooden toys and sell them at fetes.

[cueperkins]

I know Brumby...it's beyond me, but here's the link and article.....kind of explains it better...Quantum computing means that anything encrypted is at risk including bank card facilities etc.....so it's very much a topical issue as new technologies emerge...

Counter-terrorism grant as quantum computers emerge
7 Jul 2009 | Bernie Goldie  http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW061847.html

The promise of quantum computing technologies will be enormous computing power. However, these new technologies will also give rise to the cyber-security threat of successful cryptographic attacks.

In light of this, a University of Wollongong researcher, Professor Willy Susilo, has been awarded $243,000 to support research titled "Post-quantum Cryptography: Protecting Counter-Terrorism Against Future Capabilities of Quantum Computers", under the Research Support for Counter Terrorism program administered by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The grant was awarded to secure key cryptographic expertise for the Australian security community and aims to develop new cryptographic algorithms that will be secure against quantum computer-based attacks.

[*CountessA*]

You might be interested in reading this - Yale University researchers have created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor. The article is here.

Scientists Create First Electronic Quantum Processor
Published: June 28, 2009

The two-qubit processor is the first solid-state quantum processor that resembles a conventional computer chip and is able to run simple algorithms. (Photo: Blake Johnson/Yale University)

New Haven, Conn. — A team led by Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

They also used the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms, such as a simple search, demonstrating quantum information processing with a solid-state device for the first time. Their findings will appear in Nature’s advanced online publication June 28.

“Our processor can perform only a few very simple quantum tasks, which have been demonstrated before with single nuclei, atoms and photons,” said Robert Schoelkopf, the William A. Norton Professor of Applied Physics & Physics at Yale. “But this is the first time they’ve been possible in an all-electronic device that looks and feels much more like a regular microprocessor.”

Working with a group of theoretical physicists led by Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, the team manufactured two artificial atoms, or qubits (“quantum bits”). While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states. These states are akin to the “1” and “0” or “on” and “off” states of regular bits employed by conventional computers. Because of the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, however, scientists can effectively place qubits in a “superposition” of multiple states at the same time, allowing for greater information storage and processing power.

For example, imagine having four phone numbers, including one for a friend, but not knowing which number belonged to that friend. You would typically have to try two to three numbers before you dialed the right one. A quantum processor, on the other hand, can find the right number in only one try.

“Instead of having to place a phone call to one number, then another number, you use quantum mechanics to speed up the process,” Schoelkopf said. “It’s like being able to place one phone call that simultaneously tests all four numbers, but only goes through to the right one.”

These sorts of computations, though simple, have not been possible using solid-state qubits until now in part because scientists could not get the qubits to last long enough. While the first qubits of a decade ago were able to maintain specific quantum states for about a nanosecond, Schoelkopf and his team are now able to maintain theirs for a microsecond—a thousand times longer, which is enough to run the simple algorithms. To perform their operations, the qubits communicate with one another using a “quantum bus”—photons that transmit information through wires connecting the qubits—previously developed by the Yale group.

The key that made the two-qubit processor possible was getting the qubits to switch “on” and “off” abruptly, so that they exchanged information quickly and only when the researchers wanted them to, said Leonardo DiCarlo, a postdoctoral associate in applied physics at Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science and lead author of the paper.

Next, the team will work to increase the amount of time the qubits maintain their quantum states so they can run more complex algorithms. They will also work to connect more qubits to the quantum bus. The processing power increases exponentially with each qubit added, Schoelkopf said, so the potential for more advanced quantum computing is enormous. But he cautions it will still be some time before quantum computers are being used to solve complex problems.

“We’re still far away from building a practical quantum computer, but this is a major step forward.”

Authors of the paper include Leonardo DiCarlo, Jerry M. Chow, Lev S. Bishop, Blake Johnson, David Schuster, Luigi Frunzio, Steven Girvin and Robert Schoelkopf (all of Yale University), Jay M. Gambetta (University of Waterloo), Johannes Majer (Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten) and Alexandre Blais (Université de Sherbrooke).

You can read the findings if you're prepared to pay Nature - for the pay-to-read pdf, here's the link. And this is the beginning of the report:

Quantum computers, which harness the superposition and entanglement of physical states, could outperform their classical counterparts in solving problems with technological impact—such as factoring large numbers and searching databases1, 2. A quantum processor executes algorithms by applying a programmable sequence of gates to an initialized register of qubits, which coherently evolves into a final state containing the result of the computation. Building a quantum processor is challenging because of the need to meet simultaneously requirements that are in conflict: state preparation, long coherence times, universal gate operations and qubit readout. Processors based on a few qubits have been demonstrated using nuclear magnetic resonance3, 4, 5, cold ion trap6, 7 and optical8 systems, but a solid-state realization has remained an outstanding challenge. Here we demonstrate a two-qubit superconducting processor and the implementation of the Grover search and Deutsch–Jozsa quantum algorithms1, 2. We use a two-qubit interaction, tunable in strength by two orders of magnitude on nanosecond timescales, which is mediated by a cavity bus in a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture9, 10. This interaction allows the generation of highly entangled states with concurrence up to 94 per cent. Although this processor constitutes an important step in quantum computing with integrated circuits, continuing efforts to increase qubit coherence times, gate performance and register size will be required to fulfil the promise of a scalable technology.

[RiffRaff]

 










Sorry.........................

[imperfect]

[*CountessA*]

Laughter is a bit of a surprising reaction...

[RiffRaff]

the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms








 








WTF !!!

[*Yibida*]

It's the way of the future Riff!.. get with the program... :beammeupscotty:

[*CountessA*]

Ah, I see what you mean, Riff. But don't forget, the researchers bluntly say it's the "first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor". Many important inventions have begun by, in their most rudimentary stage, simply achieving things that seem ridiculously simple and able to be accomplished much more readily by existing technology. It's the promise of what MIGHT be possible with quantum processors that is exciting.

Well... exciting and terrifying.

[RiffRaff]

Well............so long as the chips come out golden and crunchie.........that's fine by me.

[imperfect]

rudimentary solid-state quantum Chip Cooker!!

[*CountessA*]

The worst thing about this, though, is that it will enable mega-rich spam/fraud groups to ... (wait for it) serve phish with that.

 :phishing:

[*smee*]

The worst thing about this, though, is that it will enable mega-rich spam/fraud groups to ... (wait for it) serve phish with that.

 :phishing:

 now I am spitting chips

[*Yibida*]

This is old hat!.... I've had one on mar's fer years !!....

[*CountessA*]

Stop boasting about your superior technology, Yibida, unless you're prepared to have your technology stolen at gu... er, I suppose you have anti-gun technology, too, hmm?

Darn.

[*Yibida*]

what size you after???.....

[*Yibida*]

How about an answer to the previous threat?....

[*Yibida*]

Or a gun when your not having a gun?...

[*Brum6y*]

Thats 1.21 GIGAWATTS

as in 1.21 x 10⁹ Watts

We can't help the American pronunciation - but we can spell it right.

[*Brum6y*]

Riff - your bemusement is understandable - but quantum processing is, by its very nature, something entirely new - so the principles, technology and terminology are going to be quite unfamiliar ... for the moment.

It's like people talking about microprocessors and all the terminology that goes with them - when the guys at Bell labs had just manufactured the first semiconductor transistor.  At that time, the principles had promise but the practical applications were unimaginable.

Yet look at where we are now.

Where could we be in 10-20 years......?

[*Brum6y*]

the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms





 








WTF !!!

A bit like ENIAC, isn't it?

[RiffRaff]

Damn it Brumby !!!.................You knew I'd have to go Google that 

[imperfect]

[*Yibida*]

Damn it Brumby !!!.................You knew I'd have to go Google that  

I'll save you the trouble Riff......I was going there anyway!......LOLOLOL


The ENIAC Story
The world's first electronic digital computer was developed by Army Ordnance to compute World War II ballistic firing tables.
By Martin H. Weik, 1961
Ordnance Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD

"...With the advent of everyday use of elaborate calculations, speed has become paramount to such a high degree that there is no machine on the market today capable of satisfying the full demand of modern computational methods. The most advanced machines have greatly reduced the time required for arriving at solutions to problems which might have required months or days by older procedures. This advance, however, is not adequate for many problems encountered in modern scientific work and the present invention is intended to reduce to seconds such lengthy computations..."
From the ENIAC patent (No. 3,120,606), filed 26 June 1947.

ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer,[1][2] was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a Turing-complete, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems.[3] ENIAC was designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory, but its first use was in calculations for the hydrogen bomb.[4][5]

When ENIAC was announced in 1946 it was heralded in the press as a "Giant Brain". It boasted speeds one thousand times faster than electro-mechanical machines, a leap in computing power that no single machine has since matched. This mathematical power, coupled with general-purpose programmability, excited scientists and industrialists. The inventors promoted the spread of these new ideas by teaching a series of lectures on computer architecture.

[*CountessA*]

It's one of the strangest things about human beings - that, no matter how learned or educated we are, even though we might be experts in a particular field and presumably open-minded to potential advances in our field, we view new directions and leaps and the promise of enormous increases in knowledge or technique or ability with a weirdly old-fashioned reluctance to jump into those possibilities.

We decry, mock, immediately put up a wall of disbelief. Again and again, we do this. Sometimes we have the excellent justification of similar failures to point to, which incite us to remain hidebound in our current technology.

Even more weirdly, the very people who are innovators in their time can be the most reluctant and resistant to the validity of change. Think of Max Planck, a great thinker who just COULD not or would not accept the changes that came about in the field of physics after his own work gained acceptance; think of doctors and Pasteur; think of the utterly bizarre absolute adherence to Plato's philosophies during the mediæval period and later, and to the ever-changing alterations to the model of the universe. At one time it was thought "superstitious" and "credulous" to believe that Plato could be wrong, but there were far-thinking people of vision even during those times. Mercator (1500s) was by no means the first, but certainly one of the world's greatest cartographers, flying in the face of received wisdom with its absolute reliance upon the extant writings of Plato (poorly understood) and even the Geographica of Ptolemy.

And I'm no better. When I studied for my B.Sc., and was introduced to the weird world of quantum physics, I found myself not believing it because - and this is the crucial bit - it didn't make sense to me. I had to allow myself to plunge into a world that didn't and never will make sense, in order to try to come to grips with this new way of thinking. There are still some theories I do not accept, largely because while being purely material, they are also inherently insupportable, and in fact what I know tells against them - but quantum mechanics... well, it's weird, and I say that anyone who says he/she understands it is not telling the truth. It is intrinsically not possible to understand, because our minds work on the macro level. But if we can investigate it, research it, study it, make predictions based upon the odd way in which matter behaves in such conditions, then we've enlarged our perceptions and our possibilities incredibly!

I am not convinced that quantum computers will be a viable reality, but I am ready to see whether it is possible.

[*Brum6y*]

Indeed Countess.

Next Google test: Charles Babbage

[cueperkins]

I am not convinced that quantum computers will be a viable reality, but I am ready to see whether it is possible.

If this is true....then one has to wonder why our Govt. would be investing in the development of anti terrorist encryption programs against quantum technology in particular...think they know something we don't?

Clearly, for those of us who have been part of the technology race...we all recall when they first sent men to the moon right?  Unheard of prior to that?.....hands up all those who used manual typewriters back in the day?.  Did we imagine that an electric typewriter with interchangeable golf ball fonts and correction tape was possible? No...but it happened.....then came memorex typewriters....lmao...they could remember a whole page of data.....woopee = no more correction tape...but we thought they were the ants pantz....the fact that they took up an entire desk didn't seem to phase anyone....and what of computers in those days.....????....the mainframe took up half an office floor and was fully airconditioned to keep it cool...workers froze, but the computers were cool...large, but cool...lol. 

Then we got microbee...how cute eh?  and how user unfriendly.....and from there...well the rest is history........we now have MRI, laser surgery, real time ability to view sensitive diagnostic scans and send them over the internet....from one surgeon to another..and that's just the tip of the iceberg of innovation in the past 30 - 40 years......the sophistication of today's technology was only a pipe dream and yet here we are. 

And.....as we get closer and closer to quantum computing, each step along the way will deliver faster and faster processors won't they?  Whereas once computers were basic...now they're dual processors with all the bells and whistles.....but I understand there are even more powerful computers available......technology isn't stagnant...it's evolving....and each new evolution brings it one step closer to the unimaginable.  Dare to dream ?  Thank god for the dreamers!!