[Cryptography] Why Quantum Cryptanalysis is Bollocks

[Henry Baker]

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Gutmann <pgut001 at cs.auckland.ac.nz>
Sent: Aug 1, 2024 8:49 PM
To: cryptography at metzdowd.com <cryptography at metzdowd.com>
Subject: [Cryptography] Why Quantum Cryptanalysis is Bollocks

I've just posted the draft slides for a talk with the above title, which also
happens to perfectly summarise its contents, to:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/bollocks.pdf

I'd be interested in any comments/feedback/whatever people might have on this.

Peter.
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Re big guns:

Dolittle (great name!) managed to convince the U.S. not to follow down the 'big gun'
rat-hole, and proved the superiority of aircraft. Curiously, no flat-tops at Pearl Harbor.
Reagan had to get people out of retirement to man battleship guns in the Middle East.

The hugely expensive German battleship Bismarck was embarrassingly finished off
by *aircraft* while its original paint was still drying.

Re big v little:

Drones of all kinds have once again revolutionized warfare; they don't even have to
be armed -- the Russians are launching a large % of fake drones to overwhelm the
defenses and force defenders to waste a Patriot missile on a $10k fake.

The F35 is your 'big gun' equivalent; a pilot can survive ~7G's; a missile can survive
30+G's; I rest my case.  Those F16's for Ukraine are unlikely to last more than a few
weeks against all manner of cheap and not-so-cheap antiaircraft missiles.

Re smart v quantum:

AI-enhanced hackers will amplify the basic message in your slides. The ROI on
these hackers will far exceed the ROI from quantum whatevers.

Re: Unvalidated Inputs

My first computer job in high school in the early 1960's involved validating inputs.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Re: Buffer overflows

A good fraction of my career was spent arguing for 'safe' languages, 'but C
is more efficient!' All we need to do now is finish converting Linux to Rust.
Gives a whole new meaning to 'The Rust Belt'.