[cap-talk] [off-topic] Quantum Encryption Implementation Broken

[John Carlson]

On Dec 30, 2009, at 9:01 PM, David-Sarah Hopwood wrote:

> John Carlson wrote:
>> Encryption appears to be a joke!
> 
> No. Work on *quantum* encryption is often a thinly veiled excuse to do basic
> physics research. Some of that is very valuable research; it's just a pity
> that funding bodies are so reluctant to fund anything that is not hyped as
> having immediate application. The same applies to quantum computation.

What I've heard is that quantum computation (I'm still wondering if these devices exist...does quantum encryption depend on quantum computation?) can break any non-quantum encryption.  If you've heard differently, let me know.  If both regular encryption and quantum encryption can be broken, it seems like encryption is a joke.  If encryption is a joke, are capabilities as data safe?

John