this company offers $1 million and a lifetime job if you can crack their encryption
seemed like somethin for the math forum...

errmmmm.. "this company". Yay.

What, the VME (Virtual Matrix Encryption, IIRC) thing? That's old... Practically impossible to crack as well. It will be possible once quantum computers are usable, but we have to wait at least a decade or two until then.

The guy I work with doesn't quite understand how quantum computers present a security threat. He has a habit of saying, "Well, once quantum computers are invented, our security will be useless anyway." I try to explain to him that we don't use encryption, we only have a password system. The best somebody could do is BF us, and get banned, which will happen regardless of the computer he's on.

like i said might be trash

[quote author=iago link=board=36;threadid=5493;start=0#msg46527 date=1077986622]
The guy I work with doesn't quite understand how quantum computers present a security threat. He has a habit of saying, "Well, once quantum computers are invented, our security will be useless anyway." I try to explain to him that we don't use encryption, we only have a password system. The best somebody could do is BF us, and get banned, which will happen regardless of the computer he's on.
[/quote]

Actually, we will have unbreakable encryption if/when quantum computers are realized -- just not the encryption methods used today. If you're interested in a non-techincal and interesting read, check out this book. amazon.com link I wish I could explain quantum cryptography as easily as it was outlined in this book, but I can't -- maybe someone else can. The basic premise is that interception of a message without knowledge of the way it was sent alters its quantum (polarization?) and renders it incorrect.

I really don't feel like reading a book, and this is interesting - can someone explain what a quantum computer is?

http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~westside/quantum-intro.html

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/quantum-computer.htm